The Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising as a Platform for the Creation of Enemies of Slovakia

Abstract

The focus of this study lies in the instrumental use of history as a tool for the legitimization of political claims. Our paper is related to the Slovak National Uprising, which plays a crucial role in the national mythology of Slovakia. This role is a reason why the annual celebrations of this historical event are one of the most important political occasions in the country. Many politicians use the celebrations as an opportunity to highlight many political issues and address a broad audience. Using semi-participant observation, we analysed five anniversary celebrations of the event (2015–2019) and the securitization strategies inherited in the speeches of politicians at the celebrations. We showed that not only topics related to the legacy of the anti-fascist uprising (e.g. contemporary right-wing extremism) are securitized or serve as objects of the creation of moral panic during these events. Some other, unrelated actors/phenomena are securitized or labelled as a threat as well – especially immigration and the politics of the EU. This fact notwithstanding, the legacy of the SNU was always used for the legitimization of securitization/creation of moral panic.

Sudeten German Landsmanshaft or the Support of Immigration? Germany as a Source of Threat in the Rhetorics of Miloš Zeman

“…Vhodně uchopená a interpretovaná historie je nástrojem dobře využitelným pro legitimizaci současných politických kroků a politických požadavků pro budoucnost (např. Jutila, 2015;Doucette, 2018;Benazzo, 2017;Naxera, Krčál, 2020a;Vaňáčová, Naxera, 2021;atd.). Spory o výklad dějin jsou proto přirozenou součástí politického boje bez ohledu na charakter politického režimu.…”

“…Koncept sekuritizace bývá v rámci výzkumu anti-imigrační rétoriky využíván poměrně často(Androvičová, 2015;Krotký, 2019;Krotký, Kaniok, 2021;Naxera, Krčál, 2020a;N. Hlaváčková, Macková, 2020).…”

“How to Sustain National Security”: A Case Study of the Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising as a Securitization Platform

“…At the same time, we try to capture the transformations surrounding the emphasis placed on individual sources of threats between 2015 and 2020. Over this time, we have carried out field research of these celebrations, and some particular arguments have already been published (Naxera and Krčál 2016;Naxera and Krčál 2017); the study is linked to the previous Czech-language version (see Naxera and Krčál 2020).…”