The Slovak National Party ( sk, Slovenská národná strana, SNS) is a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and the European

Christian values Christian values historically refers to values derived from the teachings of Jesus Christ. The term has various applications and meanings, and specific definitions can vary widely between denominations, geographical locations and different schools ...

. Since 1990 SNS has won seats in every Slovak parliament but three (in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

) and has been part of the government from 2006 to 2010. In that year it formed a coalition with

Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) ...

Direction – Social Democracy Direction may refer to: *Relative direction, for instance left, right, forward, backwards, up, and down ** Anatomical terms of location for those used in anatomy ** List of ship directions *Cardinal direction Mathematics and science *Directio ...

(Smer-SD), which resulted in suspension of Smer-SD from the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...

(PES). The PES considered SNS a "political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred."SMER suspended from PES political family
,

, 12 October 2006 However, in 2008 Smer's membership suspension ended with no further PES's demands regarding SNS. In the 2012 parliamentary election, SNS failed to meet the 5% electoral threshold and thus lost parliamentary representation. At the following party congress in October 2012, the delegates chose lawyer Andrej Danko as the new chairman of the party.

History

The party was founded in December 1989 and perceives itself as an ideological heir to the historical

Slovak National Party The Slovak National Party ( sk, Slovenská národná strana, SNS) is a nationalist political party in Slovakia. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and the European Christian values. Since 1990 SNS has won ...

. The party declares its three pillars: Christian, national and social. One of the biggest events the SNS has participated in since then was the establishment of an independent

on 1 January 1993. The SNS has had deputies in the Slovak parliament in the years 1990–2002 and 2006–2012. The party also had deputies in the Slovak government. Marián Andel, Jozef Prokeš, Jaroslav Paška and Ľudovít Černák were in the second Mečiar government (1992–1994),

Ján Sitek Ján is a Slovak form of the name John. Famous people named Ján * Ján Bahýľ, inventor * Ján Čapkovič, football player * Ján Čarnogurský, former Prime Minister of Slovakia * Ján Cikker, composer * Ján Ďurica, football player * Ján ...

and Eva Slavkovská in the third Mečiar government (1994–1998) and other deputies were in the government of

from 2006–2010 (see below). Between 2001 and 2005 there was a

Real Slovak National Party The True Slovak National Party, also translated as Real Slovak National Party or Right Slovak National Party ( sk, Pravá Slovenská národná strana), was a minor extreme far-right political party in Slovakia. At the 20 and 21 September 2002 leg ...

(''Pravá slovenská národná strana'', PSNS), a party of SNS splinters, which remerged with SNS later. Since 2005, there is also a United Slovak National Party (''Zjednotená slovenská národná strana'', ZSNS), also formed of former SNS members. In February 2006, PSNS changed its name into the Slovak National Coalition – Slovak Mutuality (''Slovenská národná koalícia – Slovenská vzájomnosť''). However, only the Slovak National Party is currently relevant. In 2008 a €120 million tender for establishing the rules and guidelines and logos for distribution of funds from the European Union, was won by a consortium of firms with close ties to SNS leader

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,

Election results

National Council

Presidential

European Parliament

2006–2010: In Slovak government

SNS entered the current Slovak government after Chairman

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) ...

agreed to create a coalition government. This created an unusual situation of an alleged far-right party, SNS being accepted and taken as a partner by SMER, a party describing itself as leftist. Three SNS ministers were sworn in on 4 July 2006: *

Jaroslav Izák Jaroslav (also written as Yaroslav or Jarosław in other Slavic languages) is a Czech and Slovak first name, pagan in origin. There are several possible origins of the name Jaroslav. It is very likely that originally the two elements of the nam ...

as the minister of the environment. Jaroslav Izák was fired from the Environment Ministry top job in the wake of accusations of cronyism, He was succeeded by

Ján Chrbet Ján is a Slovak form of the name John. Famous people named Ján * Ján Bahýľ, inventor * Ján Čapkovič, football player * Ján Čarnogurský, former Prime Minister of Slovakia * Ján Cikker, composer * Ján Ďurica, football player * Ján ...

. * Ján Mikolaj as deputy prime minister; minister of education. * Marián Janušek as the minister of construction and regional development. Janušek was sacked from the Ministry's top job for "granting lucrative contracts worth €98 million to two firms, Avocat and Zamedia, which are believed to have links to SNS chairman Ján Slota." Further ministers, delegated by SNS: *

as Minister of Environment, after Izák. His firing was over his responsibility in a mega-scandal involving the sale of the country's excess emission quotas at an extremely low price, below their market value. * Viliam Turský as Minister of Environment following Chrbet. Also fired by Fico over a dubious contract he signed with a company. After three SNS Ministers were fired from the same ministry, Fico took away control of the ministry from SNS.

2016 election

In the

2016 Slovak parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia on 5 March 2016 to elect the 150 members of the National Council. The ruling left-wing populist Direction – Social Democracy (SMER–SD) party remained the strongest party, but lost its majority. Th ...

, the Slovak National Party won 8.64% of the vote, and joined

Fico's Third Cabinet Robert Fico's Third Cabinet was government of Slovakia, headed by prime minister Robert Fico. It replaced Fico's Second Cabinet on 23 March 2016 following the 2016 parliamentary election, in which Fico's Direction – Social Democracy party ( s ...

on 22 March.

Controversy

In April 2008, a map was published on the official web page discussion forum of the party where the territory of

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

was divided between Slovakia and Austria, eliminating Hungary from the map. After receiving media attention the map was promptly removed and the party has denied responsibility, referring to the free access policy of the forum section, where the map was posted. The former party leader

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,The Slovak Spectator ''The Slovak Spectator'' (or in abbreviated form ''Slovak Spectator'') is Slovakia's English-language newspaper. History and profile The debut issue of ''The Slovak Spectator'' hit newsstands across Slovakia on 1 March, 1995. The newspaper was ...

'' reports that most of the media attention Slota receives is because of statements that cross "the line not just of political but also human decency." Documents about party leader Slota's criminal past, detailing arson,

grand theft auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...

and assault, were broadcast by

Markíza Markíza (also known as Televízia Markíza) is a Slovak television channel launched on August 31, 1996. The channel was founded by a later politician Pavol Rusko, and is now part of the Central European Media Enterprises (CME). It also operat ...

, the leading private television station in Slovakia, which resulted in a court case ''Markíza v Slota''. During the court proceedings Slota admitted to some of the crimes and even said he was proud of assaulting and beating a Hungarian saying "I am proud of giving that Hungarian a

black eye A periorbital hematoma, commonly called a black eye or a shiner (associated with boxing or stick sports such as hockey), is bruising around the eye commonly due to an injury to the face rather than to the eye. The name refers to the dark-colo ...

". Another physical assault was committed by

Anna Belousovová Anna Belousovová (; born 8 August 1959) is a Slovakia, Slovak politician and a former Deputy Speaker of the National Council (Slovakia), National Council of Slovakia. Political career In 1990 Anna Belousovová became a founding member of the S ...

of SNS against fellow parliamentarian

Igor Matovič Igor Matovič (born May 11, 1973) is a Slovak politician and former businessman. He previously served as Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia and Minister of Finance from April 2021 to December 2022 and Prime Minister from March 2020 to March 2021. ...

of SaS. The SNS politician slapped Matovič saying she disliked an article written by him.

Allegations of racism and discrimination

The party under the leadership of Ján Slota had been sometimes described as

ultra-nationalist Ultranationalism or extreme nationalism is an extreme form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains detrimental hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its sp ...

,New Slovak Government Embraces Ultra-Nationalists, Excludes Hungarian Coalition Party
HRF Alert: "Hungarians are the cancer of the Slovak nation, without delay we need to remove them from the body of the nation." (Új Szó, 15 April 2005) right-wing extremist, and

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

, due to its statements about

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...

and

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

which have been characterised as racist. The alleged party's major concern after the

dissolution of Czechoslovakia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia ( cs, Rozdělení Československa, sk, Rozdelenie Česko-Slovenska) took effect on December 31, 1992, and was the self-determined split of the federal republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries o ...

has been the danger of "

irredentism Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...

". Any moves and changes toward broader rights for the national minorities living in

, especially the sizeable Hungarian minority living in southern Slovakia, was seen as a step toward

territorial autonomy This list of autonomous areas arranged by country gives an overview of autonomous areas of the world. An autonomous area is defined as an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or has freedom from an external authority. It is typica ...

. The party had been known for its inflammatory rhetoric against ethnic Roma and Hungarians. The

, considered SNS as a "political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred." The former party's leader

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

politician who has stirred anti-Hungarian sentiments", said the best policy for dealing with the

was "a long whip in a small yard." He is quoted as saying "we will sit in our tanks and destroy Budapest" and questioning if homosexuals are normal people. Slota stated that "The Hungarians are a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation." Slota called the fascist leader

Jozef Tiso Jozef Gašpar Tiso (; hu, Tiszó József; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Roman Catholic priest who served as president of the Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 194 ...

"one of the greatest sons of the Slovak nation" and on 17 February 2000, 40 of the 41 city council members in Žilina, where Slota was mayor at the time, voted to dedicate a plaque honouring

, who was convicted and executed for the breaking Czechoslovak state and for collaboration with Nazi Germany. Later in a move that was described as absurd by a Slovak journalist, SNS demanded the seat of deputy prime minister responsible for human rights and national minorities. The party did not manage to obtain the seat.

Allegations of fascism

In the past, the SNS party was accused of being a fascist party. The allegations are sometimes connected to various statements of party members or that SNS was behind "the continuing campaign to rehabilitate

, head of the wartime fascist regime, which was responsible for the deportation of the country's Jews to the death camps" might also be a contributing factor. One high-profile fascist allegation was when in 2006 in a live interview with Inforadio, a politician of the

Party of the Hungarian Coalition The Party of the Hungarian Community ( hu, Magyar Közösség Pártja, sk, Strana maďarskej komunity; SMK-MKP), formerly known as Party of the Hungarian Coalition ( hu, Magyar Koalíció Pártja, sk, Strana maďarskej koalície), was a politi ...

, Miklós Duray described SNS as a "fascist party".Ingyen nevezte fasisztának a Szlovák Nemzeti Pártot Duray Miklós
Origo Duray said "one third of the Slovak government is made up of Slota's party which is fascist" describing the 2006 governing coalition between

's Smer,

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,HZDS, making SNS one of the three governing parties. SNS sued for financial damages, alleging the statement caused it loss of votes, image, and reputation. The District Court ruled that Duray was to pay one million crowns as a compensation and to apologize for his statements. The Slovak Supreme Court ultimately decided that SNS is not entitled for the financial compensation, because the party did not sufficiently document the alleged damage. SNS party chairman Ján Slota denounced the Supreme Court of Slovakia for that decision.

Leadership

Leaders of the Slovak National Party: * Víťazoslav Móric 1990 – 1991 * Jozef Prokeš 1991 – 1992 * Ľudovít Černák 1992 – 1994 *

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,Anna Malíková Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 122 ...

1999 – 2003 *

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party,Andrej Danko Andrej Danko (born 12 August 1974) is a Slovak politician who has been Speaker (politics), Speaker of the National Council (Slovakia), National Council of the Slovak Republic from 2016 to 2020 and Chairman of the Slovak National Party since 2012 ...

2012–present

References

External links

Official website of the Slovak National Party
{{Political parties in Slovakia Euronat members Conservative parties in Slovakia Nationalist parties in Slovakia Far-right political parties in Slovakia Political parties established in 1989 Anti-Hungarian sentiment in Slovakia Antiziganism in Slovakia Eurosceptic parties in Slovakia Slovak nationalism National conservative parties Social conservative parties Right-wing populist parties Right-wing populism in Slovakia Political parties with anti-Hungarian sentiment Right-wing politics in Slovakia Right-wing parties in Europe