NATIONALIST POPULISM AND POST-COMMUNISM

of nationalist populist appeals in the political discourse of both Poland and Slovakia remains a fact. Accordingly, since the language used in the political discourse reflects the overall political culture to a large extent, it can be argued that nationalist populism is rooted in the political culture of Poland and Slovakia. 6.2. Cross-country comparison – similarities and differences The intention of the analysis was to compare two different cases, in order to highlight the similarities in the use of nationalist populist appeals in their political discourses. One of the crucial differences was the presence of ethnic diversity – while Poland was considered to be an ethnically homogenous society, Slovakia was examined as a country with an ethnically heterogeneous structure. In order to identify the different kinds of nationalist populist appeals in the political discourses, three categories of political statements were distinguished: ‒ Statements highlighting positive national self-presentation ‒ Appeals supporting economic nationalism ‒ Slogans stressing ethnic animosity and prejudice toward “others” A cross-country comparison revealed that there were more differences in the language used in the party programmes than in the media statements of particular leaders. The number of nationalist populist slogans in the party programmes was also significantly lower in the Slovak case. This can be explained by the importance of the involvement of the international factor – namely the EU conditionality – due to which the Slovak political elite were more cautious in the usage of slogans and statements that might have been considered as politically incorrect. The international community, and especially the EU and US, had been intensively monitoring political developments in the CEE countries since 1992, in order to avoid a repetition of the Yugoslav scenario. Ten years later, Slovakia was under surveillance due to its planned membership in the EU, and the political parties were quite aware of the fact that no officially published documents should contain any ethnically-based prejudices. Despite some differences in the usage of nationalist populist appeals, there are significant similarities that cannot be overlooked. They can be found in all three categories of the nationalist populist statements. Statements focusing on positive national self-presentation In both countries, the political elite tended to highlight the importance of the nation and national values in the political discourses. They preferred to speak on behalf of the whole nation and did not distinguish between citizen and ethnic principles. The importance of a collective identity is also stressed

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