NATIONALIST POPULISM AND POST-COMMUNISM

5.2.2. Electoral success of the political parties exploiting nationalist populist language The election results showed that all the analysed political parties, with the exception of one (ANO), used different forms of nationalist populist rhetoric in their party programmes. 168 Since ANO received only about 8% of the total votes, it can be argued that the 2002 elections were also marked by the quite extensive success of nationalist populism, as demonstrated by the voter support. Obviously, the political parties differed in the extent to which they used nationalist populist statements in their programmes. Other differences appeared in the semantics of the appeals that were used. While the language used in the category of “positive self-presentation” can be characterised as moderate, it is stronger in the other two categories – economic nationalism and animosity toward “others”. For instance, the appeals of the SMER concerning the “irresponsible increase in the number of Roma population” 169 can be considered to be openly offensive. Nevertheless, a moderate tone prevails in most of the statements 170 . In this context, the conditionality of the European Union might be mentioned as one of the important factors shaping the Slovak political discourse. Since the party programmes, which can be perceived as a kind of “shopping window” of the political parties, had been under the surveillance of the European Union, the parties felt obliged to accommodate the language they used to the EU’s standards and requirements. The European Union conditionality only stressed the importance of employing other channels, through which the political parties communicated with their supporters. In this regard, the media played an especially important role. As will be demonstrated in the forthcoming chapter, the broad use of nationalist populist appeals in the press statements seems to support the argument concerning the influence of the EU conditionality.

168 For the election results, see Figure No. 4. 169 Voľte poriadok a slušný život! SMER – Tretia cesta , p. 3.

170 See Príležitosť pre lepší život – pokračovanie demokratickej vlády. Volebný manifest SDKÚ – Program pre voľby do Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky 2002 , Volebný program Kresřanskodemokratického hnutia, S ľuďmi a pre ľudí , election program of HZDS-ĽS, Voľte poriadok a slušný život! SMER – Tretia cesta , Volebný program Komunistickej strany Slovenska. Voľby 2002, Magyar Koalíció Pártja/Strana Maďarskej koalície – Volebný program 2002.

67