The Christian Element in the Party Landscape of Slovakia

Much of the history of Slovakia has been shaped by Catholic and Protestant intellectuals. Representatives of both denominations were engaged in the Slovakianrenaissance of the 18th century. Catholics helped support the fight against communist rule and assisted in consolidating democracy after Moscow’s puppetregime had collapsed.In the 19th century, the development of the party landscape in the kingdom of Hungary was greatly influenced by three conflicts: About constitutional law, about the economic and social orientation of the country, and about the position of ethnic groups in aMonarchy bent on assimilation or ‘magyarisation’.The establishment of the Slovakian National Party (SNS) in June 1871 was founded on the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation adopted ten years before which demanded, among other things, equal rights for all nations in Hungary. Motivated by the social encyclical Rerum novarum promulgated by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 as well as by the anti-clerical attitude of the Court at the time, the Catholic People’s Party (KN) was founded by Ferdinand Zichy in 1894 to compete with the SNP – the beginnings of a tradition of Christian democracy in the Slovakian party landscape. However, when the KN embraced Hungary’s nationalist policy of assimilation it lost the support of the Slovak Catholic intelligentsia. At the same time, differentiation increased within the SNS, whose national backing was highly heterogeneous in the end of the 19th century. A powerful group surrounding Andrej Hlinka, a cleric, became the talk of the nation, and public criticism of the KN’s chauvinist policies became increasingly sharp. The only unifying element within the SNS was a common desire to strengthen the national consciousness of the Slovaks and to stem the tide of Hungary’s assimilation policy. The foundation of the Slovak People’s Party (SL’S) by Andrej Hlinka in Zilina in 1913 terminated the formation of Christian parties in Slovakia for the time being.After the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the SL’S became a modern right-wing Catholic-national party which changed its name to Hlinka’s Slovak National Party (HSL’S) in 1925. As the conflict between the church and the state grew more virulent, the party stepped up its demands for autonomy, adopting an anti-communist attitude soon afterwards. In the elections of 1925, the HSL’S was returned as the strongest party at 35 percent of the vote. It joined the government, only to leave it again in 1929. With most of its electoral base in the rural areas, the HSL’S won 63 seats in parliament in 1939. Its chairman, Jozef Tiso, was appointed head of government as well as president. Under his leadership, the party founded a number of organisations such as the Hlinka Guard, which was modelled on the fascist movements in Germany and Italy, and the Hlinka Youth. It was only after the end of Nazism and the Second World War that the Slovakian National Council put a stop to the activities of the party and its organisations.After 1945, it was impossible for a time to found a Catholic party because Czechoslovakia’s first post-war government regarded the Catholic movement as a potential threat to the consolidation of the newly-unified state and an enemy of communism, the latter because of the attitudes adopted by Catholic politicians earlier on. Daunted by the persecution of the church initiated by the regime, many Slovak Catholics abandoned the idea of founding a party with a religious character. Nevertheless, the Catholic movement survived in the form of a catacomb church, ordaining its priests and bishops in secret.Once again, non-communist political groups began to develop when the regime collapsed. Both Czechs and Slovaks formed their ‘public against violence’ movement which was joined by people of highly different political persuasions. In the early 1990s, the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) was founded which, led by the Catholic dissident Ján Čarnogursý, breathed new life into the Christian and/or Catholic tradition in Slovakia’s party landscape. However, when the nationalist and populist Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) was formed in 1992 under the leadership of Vladimir Mečiar as a spin-off of the liberal VNP, it became evident that the roots of Catholicism had lost some of their strength in forty years of communist rule. The KDH supported the transition from a command to a market economy in the still-existing Czechoslovakian Federation as well as the reform policies of Václav Klaus, although they were regarded as painful by many. The KDH lost many sympathizers because of this, as well as because of its support for a more powerful role of the individual states within the Federation and the involvement of that process in the European integration of the country.When the Slovakian state became independent in 1993, the conflict between separatists and federalists lost its meaning. At the same time, Mr Mečiar’s increasingly authoritarian style of leadership gave rise to new tensions, as he was ruining the country and robbing it of any chance of integration into the structures of Europe in the near future.In response to Mr Mečiar’s electoral-law bill with which he intended to secure power for his party in permanence, several opposition parties founded the Slovakian Democratic Coalition (SDK) which, composed of highly heterogeneous ideological forces, partly disintegrated in 1998. One of the consequences of its disintegration was the establishment of the Slovakian Christian Union (SDKU) which, unlike the KHD, was conceived as a popular party under the leadership of the prime minister, Mikuláš Dzurinda. Very soon, the party became the moving force of Slovakia’s integration in the West, and the country’s traditional conflict between western and eastern alignment was over.Today, there are three Christian democratic parties in Slovakia, albeit with highly heterogeneous programmes. Still, they all have their own representatives in government, they all are highly personalized, and they all look back on a rich tradition of internal conflict and fragmentation.With a membership of 18,000, the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) is Slovakia’s largest Christian democratic party. It is founded on the ideas of Christianity and national identity. The Slovakian Christian Democratic Union (SDKU) numbers more than 5,000 members. Without a basis in the traditions of Slovak Christianity, it is anxious to open itself to a more widespread electoral base and/or to amalgamate Christian and liberal ideas. The Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), an alliance of three Hungarian parties formed on the basis of Mr Mečiar’s electoral-law bill, represents the third Christian force whose foundation was influenced by the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement (MKDH).Today, Christian democracy is firmly embedded in Slovakia. One of the reasons for this lies in the special historic role played by the Catholic Church in the formation of the Slovakian nation. Another lies in the fact that three of the conflicts which significantly influenced the formation of all political parties are resolved today – the conflict between communism and anti-communism, the conflict between separatism and federalism, and the conflict between western and eastern alignment. Especially the Christian parties are now called upon to help overcome the last stills-mouldering conflict, the classic ideological conflict between left and right, the Christian parties being those which today harbour mostly the winners rather than the losers of the transformation process.