Slovakia

Pariahs or Partners?

“…After a few months, however, Sieť's parliamentary group dissolved, which resulted in a change of the partisan composition of the coalition and, thus, a new government according to the counting rules applied in this study. The new government still held a majority because some Sieť deputies joined Most-Híd's parliamentary group (Baboš and Malová 2017). This re-formation of the coalition, however, underlines the importance of the SNS' relatively large seat share.…”

“…Later that year, however, Sieť withdrew its support for the government completely, which was formally reduced to Smer, SNS and Most-Híd. Since some of the former Sieť deputies had joined Most-Híd, the coalition still had a majority (Baboš and Malová 2017). This three-party coalition remained in power until the next regular elections in 2020, although it was shaken by the massive public protests following the murder of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kušnirova in 2018, which forced several members of the cabinet to resign, including prime minister Fico himself.…”

“…Smer once more emerged victorious from the 2016 parliamentary elections and was thus in charge of forming a government. The party had incorporated the SNS' exclusionary conception of Slovak national identity, and during the course of the "migration crisis" in the mid-2010s, Fico's attacks against immigrants and refugees were even more extreme than the radical right party's (Rybář and Spáč 2016;Androvičová 2017;Baboš and Malová 2017). Now that the HZDS had completely vanished from the political arena, the SNS was the only party in parliament with socioeconomically and socio-culturally proximate positions to the weakened formateur.…”

“…Due to the absence of other ideologically compatible coalition partners, however, Smer struggled to find additional junior partners. The eventual formation of an ideologically heterogeneous, four-party majority government with the Hungarian minority party, Most-Híd, and the newly founded conservative party, Sieť, was aided by two factors: First, many parties agreed that Slovakia's upcoming role as president of the Council of the European Union should not be managed by a caretaker government (Baboš and Malová 2017) and, second, the country's political culture included a general scepticism towards minority governments. The coalition that was ultimately cobbled together was exceptional in that it included both the anti-Hungarian SNS and Most-Híd, the representative of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia.…”

“…The coalition that was ultimately cobbled together was exceptional in that it included both the anti-Hungarian SNS and Most-Híd, the representative of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. However, the hostility between these parties lost some momentum in the mid-2010s after the SNS changed its leadership and the politicisation of the immigration issue became more intense (Baboš and Malová 2017;Harris 2019;Rybář 2020). In addition, the Hungarian minority was now represented by Most-Híd, not by the SMK, which had been the SNS' main opponent during the late 1990s when the polarisation in the Slovak party system peaked.…”