SOCIOLÓGIA

Slovak sociological review No 3,2004

ISSN 0049-1225

Prof.Ladislav Macháček, Editor – in-Chief

As you can see, the special issues cover of the periodical Slovak Academy of Sciences, in which the first complete interpretation of Youth and European Identity project under supervision of prof. Lynn Jamieson is published, we still have problems to mix an appropriate “European blue” and “European yellow.” One of my colleagues told me this reminds him of the colors of the Swedish national flag more than the European Union symbols. I think it symbolizes a relationship of Slovaks with Europe (Council of Europe or European Commission). Many Slovaks find it irritating when there is something different prepared in the “European kitchen” than what things about Slovakia occur on the “European menu.”

Slovakia is known across Europe as a country,

which holds a “Black Peter” card for a peaceful parliamentary split of the Czechoslovak Federation,

which has alone decided to launch Gabcikovo Water Project on the Danube, yet our decision was approved by the Court in Haag,

which became a member of NATO a few years after Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary,

which received the most strict visa restrictions from some EU countries because Roma citizens decided to behave like first euro-citizens,

which most recently evoked mixed reactions about low turnout for the European Parliament elections.

The people of Slovakia are in their struggle with Slovakia’s own state and clerks, their political parties and their privatizers learning, how to behave like citizens. They even learned that non-participation in elections is sometimes the most effective way how to express civic courage and responsibility, how to present their political will and opinion.

Why did 80% of Slovaks with voting rights, many of them young people, stay home instead of voting?

1. Election law does not say election participation is an obligation even though this still exists in some EU states. People know there are no repressive rules for so-called “feet choice” in elections like before 1989. Just to remind you under communism the turnout was 99% in every election.
2. Rather untraditionally, the law set only one day for the elections this time (for example in the Czech Republic it was Friday and Saturday) and many people voted here on the way from church. KDH (The Christian Democratic Movement) received 15% votes and 3 mandates.
3. Even the candidacy of Peter Stastny, ice-hockey manager and symbol of Slovak success in the World Championship of ice hockey, did not help. He received MP mandate of 88,000 preference votes. SDKU (Slovak Christian and Democratic Union) also received 15% of votes and three mandates.

Voter apathy of Slovaks in the European Parliament elections should be “read” carefully.

It is a warning for domestic political scene.

It is their public protest against low political culture, fighting among currently governing political parties, against political instability in the country. “Effective” apathy that was noticed throughout Europe should be interpreted as a strong slap of Slovak citizens to their government and party politics.

It is their message to Europe and its citizens

More important than low turnout are final results of the European Parliament. Who did the Slovaks choose to represent them in the European Parliament? Among 14 elected MPs there is not a representative of Slovak Communist Party or Slovak National Party. Out of 14 MPs there are five women and two representatives of the Hungarian ethnic minority.

It is their message to the elected Slovak MPs for the European Parliament

Citizens will be waiting whether Slovak MPs would be or would not be “in Slovakia with their hearts” as they promised. They will also notice where their “wallet” will be, in Brussels or in Bratislava. Funny like this was one of the campaign billboards of a political party which was saying where the candidate` s heart would be. The fact is their mandate is weak. They received it from only 17% of voters.

What did Europe take for granted? YEAR 2003

More than 50% of Slovaks approved the accession of Slovakia into the EU. Results of EYI research which we present in this issue show that young people associate the EU not with better life only, but also with advantages of migration freedom, broader labor market, safer future for their children, but especially, recognition of their European identity of a relatively young European nation which achieved things which other nations achieved only after decades.

What did Slovaks do for themselves? YEAR 2004

In May 2004 Slovaks mobilized themselves in the second round of presidential` s elections even without being advised by the governing democratic political coalition. One could even say: they went to vote against their will. The reason of high turnout at the presidential` s elections was to definitely obliterate a chance of Meciar becoming the President of Slovakia.

At this moment we are getting seated at the round table of the new Europe onto “our own chair”, Slovaks did not let themselves to be represented abroad for next five years by someone who they sent to past more than once (1998, 2002).

This briefing emerges from our research “The Orientations of Young Men and Women to Citizenship and European Identity” funded by the European Commission. The project combined both quantitative (survey - summer and autumn 2002) and qualitative (in depth-interviews - spring and summer 2003) methods to enable insight into young adults´ (aged 18-24) constructions of regional, national and European identities and their perceptions of Europe and the EU. The research was undertaken in 10 sites in 6 European countries: Manchester and Edinburgh (the UK), Madrid and Bilbao (Spain), Vienna and Bregenz area of Vorarlberg (Austria), Chemnitz and Bielefeld (Germany), Bratislava (Slovakia) and Prague (Czech Republic). For more on the project as a whole see www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/youth/ For information on this briefing contact ladislav.machacek@savba.sk.