Ultra‐nationalism in Slovak life: An assessment

SUSANNAH FRIED

Ultra-nationalism in Slovak Life:An Assessment

Amajor political difference has appeared between the Czech and Slovakrepublics since their split five years ago. While the Czech political ori-

entation has followed Western democratic models, the initial Slovak deter-mination to follow a similar path has gradually been eroded by theappearance of anti-democratic forces. These forces compete for public sym-pathy unhindered by clearly defined traditions of political democracy. Thedemocratically-minded opposition has a dual disadvantage in that it is at-tempting to appeal to a democratically untutored population and is simul-taneously combating a persuasive, populist ideology linked to nationalism.Thus, the country's democratic future is not secured. In the short andmedium term, the struggle for Slovakia's future political orientation is be-ing fought between those segments of society for which the former lack ofstatehood and problematic relations with neighbouring states serve as aspringboard for embracing the Western system of political and economicthought, and those segments which are essentially anti-democratic in theirinsistence on an isolationist self-sufficiency. The latter find their ideologicalsource in many of the principles of the pro-Nazi Slovak war-time state.

The mission to instill the latter version of Slovakia in the disorientednational mind has been forcefully championed by the Slovenská národnástrana (SNS, Slovak National Party) and its spiritual associate, the culturalfoundation Matica Slovenská (MS, Mother of Slovakia). The SNS has itspower base in the traditionally backward regions of central Slovakia, whilethe MS relies on its numerous regional cultural centres, many of them in theethnically mixed regions of eastern and southern Slovakia. They satisfy theimmediate needs of those who perceive themselves as socially, politically orculturally disadvantaged, but both these organizations exercise an indirectinfluence far in excess of their membership through their combined andgrowing strength in the media and publishing. They feel greater politicalloyalty to the collectivist, autocratically-controlled war-time state than tothe multicultural open traditions of Western society. Their leaders are criticalof greater European integration, point to alleged Western liberal decadenceand moral corruption, and claim that Western models are alien to Slovakia.

However, the organizations are aware of the Slovak government's

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negative international image and of the possible consequences of removingtheir pro-democratic disguise.1 They therefore concentrate on nourishing aless conspicuous process of historical 'revision' of the war-time Slovak stateand its leader, the Catholic priest Dr Jozef Tiso. An integral part of thisprocess are attempts to justify the wartime state's persecution of SlovakJewry and their deportation to the Nazi death camps. Although estimatesof the numbers of Jews who were deported from the wartime state andperished vary from 60,000 to 80,000, the 'revisionists' tend to quote GeraldReitlinger's estimate of 59,100, or 37.6 per cent of those deported from Slovakterritory, as having perished.2 Apart from the deliberate downplaying ofthe destruction of Slovakia's Jews, today's nationalist ideologues continueto explain the historical position of Jews in Slovakia using only mildly di-luted stereotypes typical of the leaders of the wartime state, referring to theJews' alleged economic and financial control, world domination and anti-Slovak sentiments. The Slovak nationalists treat the two largest minoritiesin Slovakia, the Hungarians and the Roma, in similar vein, employing rhetoricwhich has led to many instances of verbal and physical abuse.

In this article I deal simultaneously with the activities of the SNS andMS because they are complementary: their histories are interconnected and,in the early days, many of the SNS leaders were prominent members of MSand vice versa.3 Nevertheless, they are two separate entities: while the SNSis a parliamentary political party governed by statutes with all the entailingrights and obligations, the MS's current, post-communist leadership missesno opportunity to emphasize its non-partisan, independent and non-politi-cal status. As its managing director, Imrich Sedlák, has noted: 'Political andconfessional impartiality... these attributes are at the core of the MS's multi-lateral activities.'4 While this statement is true within the strict context ofthe MS's constitution, the organization's terms of reference and activities gowell beyond the cultural enlightenment of Slovaks at home and abroad andinto the realm of national and 'patriotic' image-making, a ready propagandainstrument for today's nationalists.

Origins of the SNSToday's SNS claims it is the direct heir of the oldest Slovak political party,its name-sake the Slovenská národná strana, which was established in 1871.

1 See the brochure Stanovy Slovenskej národnej strany (Rules of the Slovak National Party)(July 1996).

2 Gerald Reitlinger, The Final Solution (London 1953) as quoted in Zamlčana pravda Slovensku . . . (see fn. 12).

3 See Politicks strany na Slovensku 1860-1989 (Political Parties in Slovakia, 1860-1989)(Bratislava: Archa 1992), 35-49 and 105-9; and Alexander Hirner, T h e Matica idea' inSlovensky spisovatel'(Bratislava 1992) and Galéna matičých dejatel'ov (Gallery of MaticaActivists) (Martin: Matica Slovenská 1990).

4 See Imrich Sedlák, 'Defending the national interest' in Tri roky obnovenej členskej základneMatice slovenskej 1990-1992 (Three Years of Renewed Membership of Matica Slovenská,1990-1992) (Liptovsky Mikuláš: Matica Slovenská 1994), 27.

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However, there are major differences between the enlightened character ofthe highly educated leadership of the original party and the current leader-ship with its anti-liberal orientation.5

In 1871 the Slovenská národná strana was the first exclusively Slovakpolitical party to be (grudgingly) permitted to function following decadesof pressure on the Austro-Hungarian authorities by a politically vigorousgroup of Slovak intellectuals. A forward-looking party, it actively promotedthe rights of all nations in the region, fought for general suffrage, civil rightsand liberties for all and became a firm advocate of co-operation with theCzechs. In the period prior to the First World War, the party either boy-cotted elections in protest against the policies of the central government orpolled too few votes to count. However, this was an important period ofconsolidation and political evolution. The party served as an umbrella fordifferent political strands, some of which gradually split from the main partycorpus.

The first major split within the SNS, in 1913, led to the founding ofthe Slovenská fudová strana (SLS, Slovak People's Party), whose membersand sympathizers were later nicknamed 'Ludáks'. They represented thestrong Catholic and nationalist wing within the party. Despite the brief sus-pension of the SNS's activities during the First World War in avoidance ofrepressive Hungarian measures, the party's leadership became involved inopen negotiations with the Czechs on their common future after the war.However, in the postwar period the party was overshadowed by the grow-ing political strength of the Slovenská fudová strana (SLS, Slovak People'sParty), which was led by Anton Hlinka, whose name the party adopted in1925, becoming known as the Hlinkova slovenská Fudová strana (HSLS,Hlinka Slovak People's Party). In 1932, owing to to political weakness, theSNS leadership, propelled by radicals within, decided to join the HSLS tocreate an autonomous political block aimed at obtaining increased self-gov-ernment for Slovaks from the centralist Prague government. Though this liai-son was attacked by a more progressive wing within the SNS and wasabandoned in 1935 in favour of the traditional centrist political course, itwas too late for the party to recover lost ground. Shortly after the declara-tion of Slovakia's autonomy in November 1938 it was compelled to mergewith the Hlinka party into the ruling Strana slovenskej národnej jednoty(SSNJ, Party of Slovak National Unity). A segment of democratically-minded members of the SNS emigrated but the remainder of the party lead-ership was unable or unwilling to offer resistance. The radical nationalistprogramme, accompanied by one of the most extreme anti-Jewish legisla-tures in Europe and the active involvement of all party segments in the

5 See Grigorij Mesezhnikov, 'Internal development and the political scene' in Martin Bútora(ed.), Slovensko 1996, Súhrnná správa stave spoločnosti a trendoch na rok 1997 (Slovakia1996: Summary Report on the State of Society and Trends for 1997) (Bratislava: Institutefor Public Issues 1997), 28-9.

96 Ultra-nationalism in Slovak Life

persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust of Slovak Jewry, led to a ban onall constituent parts of the Party of Slovak National Unity after the SecondWorld War.

Origins of Matica SlovenskáMatica Slovenská was founded in 1863 by, predominantly, the same edu-cated, nationally-minded, mainly Catholic and Protestant Slovak priests who,just a few years later, were instrumental in establishing the Slovak NationalParty. The aim of the MS was the promotion of Slovak culture, the educa-tion of the largely illiterate population and the building of Slovak nationalawareness. MS functioned only until 1875, when it was banned by the Hun-garian authorities. It renewed its activities in the new Czechoslovak state in1919 and managed to re-establish and extend its network of local educa-tional and library centres, to continue publishing annuals and manuals forthe Slovak public and to re-establish contact with the Slovak emigrationmainly in the United States. The early political repression, encouragementof Slovak national awareness, political contacts with both expatriate com-munities in the West and with other nationalities and Slovak communitiesin the central European region led the MS to a progressively greater in-volvement in politics. It became a 'cultural and educational arm' of the SNSand leaders of the two organizations freely co-operated during the four-year period of joint existence which ended in a ban on the MS. This spiritualand ideological communality re-emerged in 1919, during the first Czecho-slovak Republic, though it was somewhat weakened by Czech-Slovak languagetensions in the MS in 1932 and the subsequent nationalist radicalization.

There is no doubt that the MS collaborated with the war-time state ofthe Ludáks: official documents show the period 1933-45 as the most fruit-ful in the organization's history. Political expediency and a survival instinctalso played their part in the MS's activities following the communist takeover.

The present, unique status of the MS in Slovakia is derived from itshistorical longevity, its accumulation of political experience, and themanipulative energy the organization has developed in order to survive inoften unfavourable political situations.

Post-communist thrust for renewal of the Slovak stateThe SNS was re-established shortly before the first free general elections inCzechoslovakia, which took place in June 1990. Despite the party's nov-elty—i.e. its reappearance after having been banned for forty-five years—inthe post-communist public perception and its weak starting position on theSlovak political scene, it polled 13.9 per cent of the vote, becoming the thirdlargest party and gaining twenty-two seats in the federal parliament.6 Boththe SNS, under its radical nationalist leader Wazoslav Móric, and the MSentered the political fray of the post-communist chaos with a clear pro-

6 Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival (New York: StMartin's Griffin 1995).

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gramme—to push for the complete independence of Slovakia from theCzechoslovak republic. This demand, documented by numerous publicproclamations by the leadership of both organizations, was strengthenedby numerous mistakes, insensitive statements and displays of inexperienceon the part of the Czech political representation in their intercourse withtheir Slovak counterparts. In 1992, in the second—and for the future ofCzechoslovakia—decisive, general elections, SNS rhetoric, supported bythe MS's publishing activities, led to the SNS's becoming the fourth largestpolitical party in Slovakia and the third largest Slovak political party in thelast federal parliament.7 The SNS entered the election with a list of candi-dates not only from its own ranks but also from the newly establishedAsociada slovenskych vojakov (Association of Slovak Soldiers)8 and theMS, all standing on an ultra-nationalist ticket.'

The election results brought an instant increase in the volume of newly-published and reprinted literature on the Slovak war-time state, most of it'revisionist' in character. The authors were both surviving and deceasedpersonalities of the war-time regime and a new generation of 'revisionist'historians and journalists from home and abroad. They found an importantplatform for disseminating their views also in the publishing activities ofthe SNS fortified by the return of assets taken from the MS by the commu-nist authorities, and in press and publishing organizations sympathetic toor distributed by the SNS.

Through MS almanacs, periodicals and the weekly Slovenské národnénoviny (Slovak National Newspaper) as well as the SNS information bulle-tins Slovensky národ (The Slovak Nation) and Mladé Slovensko (YoungSlovakia) and several, by now defunct, periodicals, both organizationsopened the door to sympathizers. These included Stefan Polakovič, the chiefideologue of the Tiso regime, Arvéd Grébert, wartime press secretary of thefirst foreign minister Ferdinand Öurcansky and subsequently press attachein Berlin, a number of 'revisionist' historians, sociologists and journalists,and anybody who demonstrated a positive attitude towards the Tiso state.Among the latter were the Adelaide-based professor of metallurgy andamateur historian František Vnuk, the Padua University professor StanislavÜurica, the 'revisionist' historian Dr Anna Magdolenová and Eudovit Pavlo,Chairman of the Slovak League in America. However, strong SNS and MSinfluence can be felt also in a number of other periodicals, some of themmainstream and with a substantial readership.10

7 See Fedor Gál, The Czechoslovak political scene after the elections' in Josef Alan, FedorGál, Ján Jiráker al, Volby (The Elections) (Prague 1994), 130-1.

8 The Association of Slovak Soldiers, founded in 1992-3, consists mainly of those who foughtthe Allies in the war-time state army, including some who were imprisoned for this reasonin Soviet labour camps or Czechoslovak communist prisons.

9 See Lubos Kubin, Bohumil Juhas, Daniel Balko et al, Dva roky politickej slobody-expost(Two Years of Political Freedom—Ex Post Factum) (Bratislava 1993), 41.

10 See Yeshayahu A. Jelinek, 'A whitewash in colour Revisionist historiography in Slovakia',East European Jewish Affairs, vol. 24, no. 2,1994,117-30.


Of far greater importance than the periodicals and other informationbulletins put out by the SNS and MS is a steady stream of 'revisionist' books.The MS remains by far the most important publisher, distributor and spon-sor of this literature. It has published works by Stefan Polakovič on Slovakiaand Europe, by Milan Durica on Tiso, and biographies of the former Secre-tary General of the Hlinka People's Party, the Toronto-based historian DrJozef Kirschbaum, and the former Slovak diplomats Konstantin Culen andJozef Mikus, to name but a few of their most recent works."

Both SNS and MS are connected with two books which in 1996-7became a source of international controversy. The first is a collection of,among other things, articles, personal reminiscences and excerpts from his-torical documents published under the title Zamlcaná pravda o Slovensku:Prvd Slovenskd republika, Prvy slovensky prezident Dr. Jozef Tiso, Tragediaslovenskych židov podl'a novych dokumentov (The Untold Truth aboutSlovakia: The First Slovak Republic, The First Slovak President Dr JozefTiso, and the Tragedy of Slovak Jews According to New Documents). Thebook was published by the MS together with an assembly of domestic andforeign organizations sympathetic to the cause." The tone of the book isshown in the introduction by one of its contributors, Dr Anton Porubsky:

In 1995 we remembered:The 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War;The 50th anniversary of the Holocaust;The 50th anniversary of the victory over Fascism and Nazism;The 50th anniversary of the Slovak national uprising.

With a sense of the injustice committed against the nation and with shame in our hearts,we must say that there were no official celebrations or memorial meetings for our Slovak stateand its president, Dr Jozef Tiso, who, in this state, saved thousands of innocent people fromthe horror of concentration camps and gas chambers."

The contributors to 'The Untold Truth about Slovakia' are the sameas the authors of much of die 'revisionist' literature mentioned above. Manyof the articles are reprints of material published in the Slovak press and aredivided into two sections. The first section deals with the standard 'revi-sionist' interpretation of the supposedly peaceful and prosperous life in theSlovak state of the general Christian population, including the baptized Jews.Included in this section is a multitude of articles defending Tiso as a greathumanist and rational politician seeking to build an independent Slovakiaagainst the odds. The second section is aimed at exonerating Tiso from any

11 For the most recent publications see MS's catalogue for 1997.12 Gabriel Hoffmann, Milan S. Ďurica, František Vnuk, Iludovit Pavlo, Anton Porubsky,

Anna Magdolenová, Jozef Kirschbaum, Zamlcaná pravda Slovensku: Proá Slovenskárepublika, Prvy slovensky prezident Dr. Jozef Tiso, Tragdia slovenský ch židov podl'a novychdokumentov (The Untold Truth about Slovakia: The First Slovak Republic, the First SlovakPresident Dr Jozef Tiso, The Tragedy of Slovak Jews According to New Documents)(Friends of President Tiso and others, Vydavatel'stvo Garmond, Partizánske 1996).

13 Ibid., 3.

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guilt in the Holocaust of Slovak Jews by the standard apologetic arsenal—reference to the allegedly inferior circumstances of Jews elsewhere and theprovision of individual testimonies in favour of the war-time state by anumber of Jewish survivors, prominent among them being the evangelizingconvert Dr Gabriel Hoffmann. A typical feature of the book is the use ofhistorical documents taken out of context or deliberately misinterpreted.

Much the same may be said of the second, highly controversial bookby the Padua University professor Milan Öurica, which was put out by thestate educational publisher (Slovak Pedagogy Publishers) under the titleDejiny Slovenska a Slovákov (The History of Slovakia and the Slovaks).14

This ambitious project aims at explaining Slovak history from a nationalistperspective from the first century until the end of 1995. Facts are providedat random, omitted or distorted to fit the author's views on the Slovak fightfor the preservation of Christian (Catholic) values and for the right to self-determination in a unitary Catholic state. Strong criticism has centred onÖurica's interpretation of the persecution of the Jews, in particular his ig-noring of some of the worst aspects of Slovak policy towards them—theirlegal marginalization, the policy of systematic asset-stripping and outrightrobbery practised by various state and public organs, and the part played intheir deportation by Tiso and his government. Öurica describes the anti-Jewish legislation as 'Christian' and, in a widely quoted section on the nu-merous (homegrown) Slovak labour camps for Jews, he cynically states that,at first, only young Jews were recruited to work in the camps but, later, theSlovak government decided on 'a more humane attitude' and brought allthe family members to the camps as 'a manifestation of goodwill in notbreaking up family bonds'. Öurica adds: 'Jewish doctors saw to the healthof camp inmates and dentists were even given gold rations to use for dentalwork, something the vast majority of the local population could not affordat the time.'15

The book contains other, highly controversial parts, among them thedepiction of recent Slovak history, with a strong anti-Czech and anti-Hun-garian bias. One reviewer remarked that Öurica's book was 'a noteworthydocument about the views and attitudes of the neo-Ludák emigration to-wards various problems of Slovakia's history.'16

Both these books were recommended by the controversial educationminister Eva Slavkovská, the representative of the Slovak National Party inthe coalition government, as supplementary teaching material for primaryand secondary schools. Slavkovská's ministry was instrumental in obtain-ing considerable financial aid17 for the publication of Öurica's book from

14 Milan S. Ďurica, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov (The History of Slovakia and the Slovaks)(Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladatel'stvo 1996) as quoted by Ján Rychlík, 'A dis-torted view of Slovak history' in Slovenské Listy, no. 6 (Prague), June 1997,16-7 and 31.

15 Ibid, 31.16 Ibid.17 Práca, 4 July 1997.


the European Commission Phare programme and in purchasing 90,000 copiesof the book for free distribution to schools. Under international pressure,the Slovak government promised to withdraw the Öurica book from thedistribution network and from schools. However, the book has been in dis-tribution in its first version since 1995" and there is no doubt that its with-drawal would have been only partially effective.

These developments have taken place at a time when Slovak schoolsare starved of history teaching material free of ideological bias and whenthe same minister, supported by MS historians, refused to approve new his-tory textbooks prepared by respected historians from the Historical Insti-tute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences on the basis that there wereinsufficient funds. This attitude is better understood in the context of theSNS's programmatic declaration which, under the heading 'Educationalchanges', states, inter alia, that 'The foundation and international recogni-tion of the Slovak Republic enables us at last to build our rich history intoour textbooks in an undistorted fashion and to introduce our children toimportant personalities of the Slovak nation. The time has come to directthe educational contents of our schools nationally.'19

Slavkovská's ministry also defended the MS's role in publishing 'TheUntold Truth about Slovakia' against criticism that it •was subsidized bytaxpayers' money, namely a substantial annual grant to the MS from thestate budget.

Slavkovská's strong ideological link with the ultra-nationalist educa-tional wing within the SNS and the MS also played a part in the adoption in1997 of legislation concerning the MS.20 The legislation provided the or-ganization with unprecedented statutory powers as an independent legalentity, enabling it to exercise a greater degree of control over previouslyindependent scholarly institutions and research establishments dealing withSlovak culture, language and history. MS's current secretary, StanislavBajanik, warned well in "advance of an MS-driven 'transformationprocess . . . culminating in the de-nationalization and unification of all sci-entific, specialist, public and organizational parts into a unitary whole'.21

The new law is seen as eminently political, giving the MS powers to,inter alia, 'strengthen Slovak patriotism, deepen the Slovaks' relationshipwith their statehood, oversee the work on school textbooks and increasethe Slovak national conscience in the nationally mixed regions'.22 These wide-ranging powers are for many Slovaks (and Czechs) a retrogressive step—one which might have been necessary in the politically oppressivemid-nineteenth century but is an absurdity in the late twentieth century.

18 Milan S. Ďurica, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov (The History of Slovakia and the Slovaks)(Košice: Pressko 1995).

19 'Updated SNS Programme for 1996", Paragraph 2, 'Education and schools'.20 Zbierka zákonov č. 68/1997, Zakon Matici Slovenskej z 13.2.1997 (Summary of Laws

No. 68/1997, Law on Matica Slovenska of 13 February 1997).21 Slovenska Republika, 4 October 1995.22 Zbierka zákonov . . . .

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The Slovak intellectual and cultural community at large and the intelligent-sia are exposed to increasing government pressure to adhere to the nation-alist demand to present a conformist, positive image of Slovakia in the fieldof political and historical research.23

The SNS in government: Playing the nationalist roleThe education minister Eva Slavkovská is one of two SNS ministers in thecoalition government which has ruled the country since the last elections in1994; the other SNS portfolio is that of defence, the minister being Jan Sitek.The SNS is the smallest of the three coalition partners but exercises undueinfluence on government decisions in so far as it holds the balance of powerin both government and parliament. The party was able to push the govern-ment into adopting some laws which are retrogressive and their applicationis a constant source of criticism both at home and abroad. The SNS's con-tribution to coalition policies focuses on measures which restrict the lin-guistic, cultural, educational, political and territorial autonomy of theHungarian minority in Slovakia, and introduces intolerance and suspicioninto the Slovak-Hungarian dialogue. It is equally intolerant towards theRoma population in Slovakia, the second largest minority after the Hungar-ian one. Racist statements made by the current SNS leader, Jan Slota, havebeen widely criticised, but his position within the government seems to beunchanged. Slota's firm position and capacity to dictate terms of co-operationto the main government party, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, hasled to a situation of quid pro quo at all levels of power, not excluding outsidethe government structures.

Within the SNS, Slota's position as leader is unquestioned. He achievedthe position firstly by engineering the removal, and later departure, of hispolitical opponents and then by imposing regulations which permit littleopposition within the party. A good illustration of this tactic is the fate ofVif azoslav Móric, one of the most outspoken radical nationalists and former(first) chairman of the party, who in 1996 was demoted still further by hisremoval from the chairmanship of the SNS parliamentary club in favour ofthe more malleable Melania Kolláriková.

SNS foreign policy concentrates on three main areas—non-integra-tion in the EU and NATO, developing new working relations with otherEuropean nationalist parties, and maintaining friendly relations with theneo-Ludák emigration.

Though the SNS has never attempted to conceal its opposition to theinitial government programme in favour of Slovakia's process of integra-tion into the EU and NATO, this opposition has been muted due to SNSconsiderations towards the main coalition party. The most recent SNSprogramme does not change the previous programmatic undertaking andstates that

23 Discussion of the law in the Czech daily Lidové Noviny, 12 April 1996.


The SNS considers decisions regarding possible Slovak membership of the EU or NATO tobe of strategic importance. Therefore, it will consistently work for the decisions to be madefully in accordance with the constitution of the Slovak Republic, drawing specific attention toArticles 3 and 7 of the Constitution and ensuring that the public is well informed on the meritsand negative aspects of such membership.24

In reality, this strategy remains on paper only: it was undermined by asteady stream of openly neutralist propaganda, stressing the necessity ofSlovakia's being able to safeguard its own economy and security withoutforeign intervention. Parallels have been drawn with other European stateswhich have rejected membership of one or other organization in favour ofneutrality. Guarantees have been demanded from Russia and NATO to un-derpin Slovak neutrality. Strong SNS anti-foreign rhetoric has been heardthroughout the dialogue regarding the entry of foreign capital into the Slovakeconomy, much of it dominated by a concern that the party's and its sup-porters' share of the privatized cake would be smaller as a result. The cam-paign against EU and NATO membership in some of the media sympatheticto the SNS standpoint, and numerous statements by the SNS leadershipcondemning those organizations' alleged constant intervention in Slovakinternal affairs, all prior to the aborted 1997 referendum on entry intoNATO, re-confirm the SNS's isolationist position.

SNS and foreign contactsThere is one area in which the SNS does not shun foreign contacts. It setitself the aim of establishing relations with what it sees as like-minded or-ganizations. So far, these contacts have been muted. A delegation of theSlovenian National Party was welcomed in Bratislava in 1996 and furthercontacts, though envisaged, have not yet materialized. The SNS has alsoexpressed a wish to meet Serbian, Scottish, Moravian and Austrian national-ists. Slota's participation in the tenth congress of the French Front Nationalin Strasbourg in March 1997, when he appealed for co-operation betweennational and Christian parties in Europe',25 has so far been the culminatingpoint of his foreign relations activities. His party received a boost when LePen accepted his invitation and made a four-day visit to Slovakia in Septem-ber. Despite Prime Minister Mečiar's appeal to ministers not to meet thevisitor, Le Pen was met by the SNS's two government ministers, EvaSlavkovská and Jan Sitek as well as Slota himself and other party top brass.In response to Slota's appeal in Strasbourg, Le Pen declared that Europeannational parties should organize a nationalist international in view of the'international cosmopolitan movement'.26

The most successful of SNS's contacts seem to be those with like-minded Slovaks in exile. These contacts are often undertaken in co-operation

24 'Updated SNS Programme for 1996-7', Paragraph 14, 'Foreign policy'.25 Text of address delivered by Slota in Strasbourg on 30 March 1997, distributed by SNS

regional office in Zilina.26 Sme, 20 September 1997.

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with the MS. The 'foreign Slovaks' are mentioned as a separate category inthe SNS's programme, according to which the SNS undertakes 'to co-ordi-nate government policy with the MS and its specialized institutions in for-eign, especially neighbouring, countries... [and] to co-operate with the MSin all areas, in the creation of a positive image about Slovaks and Slovakiaabroad [and] to co-ordinate government policy in this direction'.27

Some of these aims have already been achieved. Slovak embassies andforeign travel organizations are replete with propaganda which portrays a'positive image' of Slovakia and a new law28 enables 'good Slovaks' to ob-tain advantages in accommodation, work and other fields. A further meas-ure intended to accommodate the Slovak political emigration was the openingin Bratislava in 1995 of the House of Foreign Slovaks, which has become ameeting place for neo-Ludáks from abroad with SNS and MS members andsupporters and where events commemorating the war-time republic are fre-quently held. These and other gatherings demonstrate the fact that, to allintents and purposes, it is the neo-Ludáks from abroad who have hijackedthe political agenda of the Slovak emigration. Overall, the SNS's foreignactivities are opposed to pan-European and transatlantic structures in fa-vour of Slovak neutrality and exclusiveness because

the SNS prefers the concentration of capital, means of production and property to be in thehands of national subjects, which is the only guarantee of Slovakia's economic power. TheSNS does not support, and will never support, the sale of any wealth into the hands of anony-mous, supra-national and cosmopolitan subjects who misuse their economic power for politi-cal influence.2'

The SNS sees itself as a party in constant battle with the 'deliberatedemoralization of Slovakia and the economic blackmail and impoverish-ment of Slovakia by international capital'.30 In its distrust of all things for-eign it is coming close to practising, as a government party, officiallysponsored xenophobia.

The SNS's interest in Slovaks abroad is limited to, on the one hand,those who support 'positive image-making' and, on the other, those whobelong to the neo-Ludák exile. The latter actively support SNS and MSattempts to re-write Slovak history, dissociating it from those few demo-cratic aspects of Slovakia's past which the nation shares with other Europe-ans—resistance to Nazism, constructive multi-national Czecho-Slovakrelations, and the Slovak fight for civil liberties and democratization withinAustria-Hungary.31

27 'Updated SNS Programme for 1996-7', 2.28 'Summary of Laws No 70/1997, Law on Foreign Slovaks and Changes and Addenda to

Certain Laws, 14 February 1997.29 'Updated SNS Programme for 1996-7', Introduction.30 Ibid.31 It is noteworthy that the SNS programme update lists irredentism, Czechoslovakism and

group or ethnic terrorism as the greatest dangers currently facing the internal stability ofSlovakia (paragraph 7 on 'Security').


The ultra-nationalists, the government and opposition partiesThe position of the principal government party, the Hnutie za demokratickéSlovensko (HZDS, Movement for a Democratic Slovakia), led by PrimeMinister Vladimir Mečiar, towards its junior partner, the Slovak NationalParty, is by and large dictated by the negotiations between Mečiar and Slota.On balance, the quid pro quo system has worked to the greater advantage ofSlota's party. The decisive factor remains the blackmailing nature of Slota'sco-operation with the Mečiar-led government and the government's aware-ness of collapse in the absence of the SNS's support. On the other hand,there is a strong segment of HZDS deputies whose views are closer to thoseof the SNS and whose support for some of the more extreme SNS measuresis evident. This contributes to a further weakening of the HZDS's will tooppose the more excessive SNS demands. Overall, there has been a generalshift by the HZDS to the right. This is apparent in the government's restric-tive policies towards the freedom of media, cultural and academic institu-tions and, above all, towards the rights of the Hungarian minority, in whichthe government has openly shifted to the SNS's nationalist platform.

As far as the other, mainly opposition, political parties are concerned,,these maintain a certain distance from the SNS and its platform. However,they too have been influenced by the nationalist exhortations and propa-ganda which emanate from the SNS and its media sympathizers—so muchso that most of those parties contain a strongly nationalist group. A case inpoint is the Kresf ansko demokratické hnutie (Christian Democratic Move-ment), led by Jan Carnogursky, who quite openly woos SNS voters by stress-ing mutual interests and common political aims tinged with a Christianapproach. On the other side of the Slovak political spectrum are the activi-ties of various extra-parliamentary groups, many of them on the far right.Their influence on the SNS is apparent mainly at a regional level. The SNS'sregional offices frequently also serve as distribution points for their ultra-right, Ludák literature and, vice versa, their offices often distribute SNSperiodicals. There is also grassroots contact in the promotion of joint populistprojects and meetings. The MS is part-and-parcel of this, mostly regional,co-operation.

Ultra-nationalists and the 'Jewish question*Both SNS and MS leaderships are extremely cautious about airing any anti-Jewish sentiments. Mixed signals emanate from the SNS leader Jan Slotawho, employing old communist rhetoric, alleges the existence of a 'Zionistconspiracy' and claims that the West is under the control of Freemasons. Atthe same time, Slota has condemned the Holocaust of Slovak Jewry and isco-operative towards the Jewish community in the northern town of Zilinaof which he is mayor. An anti-Jewish bias, under the guise of criticism ofthe Jewish role in Slovak affairs, which is said to have been detrimental tothe nation's interests, is left to media sympathetic to SNS and MS ideologyand neo-Ludák academics and authors in Slovakia and abroad.

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The SNS emphasizes its adherence to Christian principles also in itsrelations with non-Christian religions, including Jews. In fact, the 'religiousJew', seen in the Slovak context as an orthodox Jew, is possibly the onlymember of this faith in Slovakia who is widely acceptable—even nostalgi-cally remembered. This Jew is, of course, the one who did not survive andcan therefore be safely praised. Almost every week a village remembers nos-talgically the rabbi who taught the local children and was kind to every-body. Then there is the 'national'Jew, who is also acceptable as long as he isin Israel. But woe betide the Jew who happens to be Slovak and critical ofpresent trends in Slovakia! Some of the latter were among the first wave ofpolitical emigration which settled in the Czech Republic. They became atarget of, among others, the daily Slovenska republika, which remarked that'Some Jewish journalists describe us as hate-driven nationalists. Accordingto these Jewish journalists, Slovakia is no more than a source of evil.'32 Anti-Jewish slander is often presented as a struggle against 'cosmopolitans', theNew York-based B'nai B'rith and Masonic lodges and similar elements whichare said to be plotting the economic takeover of both Slovakia and the world.

Despite a number of academic, Jewish and political initiatives to alle-viate the situation, nothing has been done to incorporate the history andthe Holocaust of Slovak Jews into Slovak textbooks. Quite the contrary, aswas indicated above. Equally, very little is known, except in specialized lit-erature, of the substantial Jewish contribution to the social, economic andcultural welfare of Slovakia before the Second World War.31 This disinter-est, breeding ignorance or strengthening stereotypes, is evident in the first—and quite possibly the last—survey on Jews ¡n the Slovak perception carriedout in the post-communist Slovak Republic in 1995.34 Negative stereotypesare being strengthened in the public mind by events instigated mostly bythe SNS, with the implicit or explicit support of the MS. In July 1995, forexample, the daily Slovenska republika published a full-page advertisementheadlined 'It is hard to survive in our country if one is not a Jew'. Theadvertisement was placed and paid for by the SNS.

From the second half of 1995 well into 1996, the SNS led a campaignagainst the Open Society Foundation and its backer, George Soros. Bothbecame a focus of a campaign with such slogans as 'Dirty Jewish money'and 'Soros, we don't want your money!' in SNS printed material andSlovenska republika. In May 1996 Bartolomej Kunc, an SNS deputy, theparty's expert on legal matters and chairman of the Expert Club for Chris-tian Policy, told the Czech television channel Nova that:

32 See entry on Slovakia in Antisemitism 'World Report 1995 (London: Institute for JewishPolicy Research 1996).

33 Dejiny Slovenska (The History of Slovakia) (Bratislava: Perfekt 1992), 160-3. The point ismade here that even in 1942-3 Slovakia's financial situation was at its best also as a result ofthe amount of Jewish assets finding their way into the state coffers.

34 See entry on Slovakia in Antisemitism World Report 1996.


The Slovak Republic was not based on racist laws. The economic aspects you presumably havein mind were applied prior to the passing of the Jewish Codex on the basis of which things likethe deportations happened. [Those economic measures] were an attempt to correct in a certainway a bad state of affairs when too great a part of the national wealth was owned by fewpeople—3.6 per cent of the population. This was a concentration of wealth in Jewish handsand it had its specific features. Those who did not live here and who did not study it moreclosely do not know it. In fact, this was the exploitation and impoverishment of the Slovakpeople, a method of transferring the national wealth into the hands of this small group ofcitizens . . . the Jews.55

Against this background, there has been systematic pressure to reha-bilitate the leading ideologues of the war-time republic, Tiso and Hlinka,since the establishment of the post-communist Slovak Republic. The pres-sure has been applied exclusively by the SNS and the MS, with the strongsupport of the neo-Ludák intelligentsia from home and abroad. Hlinka hasbeen practically rehabilitated: streets and squares named after him and stat-ues built in his honour are to be found throughout Slovakia. Books andarticles on his life and work, mostly sponsored or written by MS contribu-tors, appear regularly. Tiso, under whose leadership the Holocaust of SlovakJewry took place, is a close rival for rehabilitation. The rehabilitation ofHlinka and Tiso is also supported by prominent members of the Slovakclergy. Among such personalities are Cardinal Jan Chrysostom Koreč andBishops Jan Vojtassak and Dominik Hrusovsky. They appear periodicallyat events sponsored or organized by the MS, sometimes in co-operationwith Hlinka or Tiso societies or other neo-Ludák groups. Annual pilgrim-ages to Tiso's final shelter before his arrest and trial at an Austrian monas-tery in Altoetting have been strongly supported by the MS and the SNS,many of whose members were present on such occasions until the pilgrim-age was banned by the local Austrian authorities in 1997. A1995 exhibitionin Bratislava on Tiso's presence in Altoetting was visited by Eva Slavkovská,who listened to an address by Bishop Hrusovsky on Tiso's supposed gen-ius. In place of the apology demanded from her in parliament, party leaderSlota paid tribute to Tiso and was applauded by a cross-section of deputies.Annual war-time state foundation anniversaries, which are regularly attendedby prominent SNS and MS leaders, invariably turn out to be events at whichTiso's judicial rehabilitation is demanded. There are now in Slovakia severalstreets named after Tiso and in 1996 a museum in his name was opened athis birthplace in Bytca—it was funded by the neo-Ludák-dominated SlovakWorld Congress of Canada. The campaign to rehabilitate Tiso is driven aca-demically by the 'revisionist' publishing and media industry backed by theSNS, the MS and foreign neo-Ludáks. A bibliography of works on Tisocurrently available in Slovak-language editions is one of the most numerouson any single Slovak personality and, measured by the publishing demandsof a country as small as Slovakia, is politically significant.

35 Sme,30 May 1996

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ConclusionIn reaction to the declaration by the Council of Europe of 1995 as a year forcombating intolerance, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, Slovak Edu-cation Minister Slavkovská declared that since such phenomena did not ex-ist in Slovakia there was no need to combat them. The arrogance behindthis statement reflects the current latent strength of SNS- and MS-drivenideology within the Slovak establishment structures. It justifies the reactionof the surviving Slovak Jewish community, which accuses these organiza-tions of adhering to a well-tried model of infiltrating the civil and state struc-tures with a view to undermining Slovakia's fragile democracy.

The SNS entered public life with a commitment to attain the status ofan independent state for Slovakia. On this alone, it has managed to gainrelatively strong support for a party whose namesake and predecessor wasbanned from public life for forty-five years. Since 1990 the party's electoralsupport has remained more or less stable, fluctuating between 6 and 8 percent of the voting population. However, its political influence has increasedsteadily since 1993. Interestingly, 1993, the year of Slovak independence, is,at the same time, used by observers of the Slovak political scene as the cut-off year for the gradual deterioration of the political situation. The SNS'sreal influence can best be measured by its successful penetration of all civiland state structures and by the resulting strong tilt of the establishmenttowards an overall nationalist and isolationist view of the outside world. Itis difficult to as.sess how much of this is motivated by genuine convictionand how much by opportunistic considerations. In both cases, it illustratesa weak allegiance to independent political thought and an even weaker alle-giance to an open, democratic society.

As for Slovak society at large, it has suffered from institutional ne-glect and, as a result, is politically ignorant or, at best, passive. There is asmall educated core, concentrated mainly in the capital Bratislava, whichhas made a consistent effort to keep Slovakia open to the world. However,given Slovakia's exclusion from the first wave of Euro-Atlantic integration,disenchantment and frustration may help the course of the isolationists inboth SNS and MS by increasing the already strong dissatisfaction in a soci-ety which traditionally tends to look upon itself as a victim of strongerpowers.

Given the deteriorating situation in Slovakia since 1993, and the ne-cessity to take into account a justifiable effort by a newly independent andinexperienced European state to assess its past and find a footing in thepresent, a radicalization of extremist platforms in this sensitive geopoliticalregion of Europe cannot be excluded.