Working with data
The webpage focuses on political parties and their perception of nationalism and national identity. Firstly, the webpage contains a profile of each party in a national context based on basic facts, well known officials, and their electoral gains in national and European elections. Secondly, it gives an analytical insight into parties’ perceptions of national identity and nationalism. The parties are categorised according to mentions of related to national identity issues in election manifestos. These issues cover minorities, national myths, European integration, national sovereignty, integration of immigrants and related categories.
Selected case studies show parties’ "real politics" and strategies using national identity to politicise certain policies, such as using national mythologies in election campaigns. Case studies focus on up to three specific national identity issues for each country. They cover opposite positions of different parties to show different strategies and policies used to attract voters. For this purpose, visual (e.g. billboards) and text (e.g. given speeches) material was analyzed.
Acknowlegment
The Visegrad parties' profiles from 2006 - 2010 are based on a scholarly study published at Masaryk University: Černoch Filip, Husák Jan, Schütz Ondrej, Vít Michal (2011): Political parties and nationalism in Visegrad countries. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Mezinárodní politologický ústav, Monography servies 46, 2011; and on the scholarly paper Husák Jan, Schütz Ondrej, Vít Michal (2012): National identity of the Political parties in Visegrad region and their European dimension, Journal on European Integration and Federalism, Science Po, Nice.
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SPOZ (Strana práv občanů - Zemanovci)
The main goal of the party was to re-establish the leading role of Milos Zeman’s role in Czech politics. Despite the fact that on the CSSD and KSCM were also operating on the left, the party profiled itself as the only true left social democratic party. Although the party had already campaigned in the 2010 election, its real rise in significance was in the 2012/2013 presidential (?) election campaign. Through its success in installing Milos Zeman as president, the party dreamt of a significant electoral success in the 2013 general election. During the campaign, the party was expected to take between 3.5 and 7 % of the vote. The final result of 1.4 % was very surprising to everyone. Even though the party did not pass the 5 % threshold we incorporate the party into the analysis because of Milos Zeman’s role in Czech politics and his use of the Sudeten German issue during the presidential campaign
Tomio Okamura's Dawn of Direct Democracy (Hnutí úsvit přímé demokracie Tomia Okamury)
Building up a profile of Tomio Okramua, Czech-Japanese entrepreneur and member of the Senate, is a difficult task.
Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei - FDP)
The liberal party represents an ideological mixture of individual liberty and support for the free market and globalization. The party was founded in 1949 after the post WW2 division of Germany.
Alliance of the New Citizen (Aliancia nového občana, ANO)
The liberal Alliance of the New Citizen was registered by the Slovak Ministry of Interior in May 2001. The party was closely connected with the Markíza TV channel, owned by businessman Pavol Rusko who actually became the first chairman of the party. Other personalities working at the channel became prominent members of the party’s leadership – including among others Ľubomír Lintner and Eva Černá. ANO was formed a year and a half before the 2002 general election, with the only purpose being to succeed and enter the National Council. In 2002 the party proved to be a successful project when it a little more than eight percent of the votes and became part of the centre-right coalition together with SDKÚ – DS, KDH and SMK. Participation in the government, however, brought a series of scandals which resulted in the departure of several prominent politicians from the party. is development led to defeat in the 2004 European elections in which ANO acquired slightly less than the required five percent threshold and failed to enter the European parliament. Before the general election of 2006 there remained just a few people from the original party leadership and ANO competed with several liberal rightwing formations, one of which was formed by deserters from ANO. These circumstances led to yet another electoral defeat in 2006 and thus the party’s absence from the National Council. From 2007 the chairman of the party was Róbert Nemcsics, however the party did not participate in the subsequent European elections of 2009 and the general election of 2010.
Most – Híd (Bridge, Most – Híd)
The official name of the party Most – Híd consists of the Slovak and Hungarian words for bridge. It was formed in 2009 by Béla Bugár and other politicians defecting from the Party of the Hungarian Coalition. Bugár served as a chairman of the SMK – MKP for almost ten years from 1998 to 2007. In 2007 he lost intra-party elections to Pál Csáky who represented the more radical platform of the party. After several conflicts with the party’s new leadership, Bugár left SMK – MKP and together with his followers and some intellectuals of Slovak nationality founded Most – Híd. In contrast to SMK – MKP, this new party was supposed to be a platform of cooperation for all citizens of the Slovak Republic regardless of their nationality. From its beginnings, the party was accused by some politicians of the right wing opposition to be the fifth column of the Direction – Social Democracy party. However when it became more probable that Most – Híd will succeed SMK as main representative of the Hungarian minority other right wing political parties changed their rhetoric.