NATIONALIST POPULISM AND POST-COMMUNISM

Černák – had already become the Minister of Economy in 1992. The most obvious example of the joint SNS and SDĽ support for the government was the Declaration of the Slovak National Council on the Sovereignty of the Slovak Republic, which was adopted by the Slovak National Council in July 1992. In this regard, the KDH’s resistance to the support of the Declaration surprised not only the leaders of the HZDS, but also the representatives of other parties and political analysts. Despite its nation-oriented rhetoric, the KDH voted against the Declaration claiming that it might destabilise the situation in the whole CSFR. Another reason for the KDH’s different standpoint towards the Declaration might be explained by the desire of the party leadership to maintain a clear opposition policy and not to join the club of openly nationalist parties, like the HZDS and SNS. Another reason might be that the KDH leaders wanted to distinguish themselves from the openly nationalist SKDH, which was created just before the elections. Though the SDĽ did not belong to the group of parties that frequently used nationalist populist rhetoric in their election programmes, its latent support for the HZDS-led government and the Declaration of the Slovak National Council on the Sovereignty of the Slovak Republic put it to a specific position, balanced between moderate nationalist populism and populist pragmatism. Figure 2 – Election Results (1992)

Political group

%

Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS)

37.26

Party of the Democratic Left (SDL)

14.7

Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH)

8.88

Slovak National Party (SNS)

7.93

Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement-Coexistence (MKM-EGY) Civic Democratic Union (ODU) Social Democratic Party of Slovakia Democratic Party – Civic Democratic Party (DS-ODS)

7.42

4.04

4

3.31

50