The era of ethnic politics is decisively over
– this was published in Slovak on the Facebook page of György Gyimesi, the most prominent candidate of the largest Hungarian party Szövetség, the day after the Slovak elections. He was the most visible candidate for Hungarian representation, using tropes familiar from Hungarian government communication to criticize NATO and the EU, while political adverts featuring his face bore the slogan “On the Side of Peace.” The rather active campaigning efforts bore fruit to some extent, as, with the support of 30,000 preferential votes among Szövetség supporters, he moved from the bottom of the list to the second position, but the party ultimately did not make it into the Slovak legislature. Nevertheless, the party achieved better results than the polls had predicted: Szövetség ultimately garnered the trust of 130,000 voters and finished with 4.3 per cent of total votes. In contrast, the other two Hungarian-related parties performed significantly worse than what the public opinion polls indicated, finishing well below one per cent, essentially being wiped out in Saturday’s election. Which means that
for the second time in a row, the Hungarian minority in Slovakia remains without parliamentary representation.