LOCAL AND REGIONAL ELECTIONS IN SLOVAKIA IN 2022: THE IMPACT ON THE INTER-PARTY BALANCE AND STRUCTURING OF THE POLITICAL SPACE

Abstract

The article analyzes local and regional elections in Slovakia in the context of identifying and systematizing the changes and trends in the political-party balance and structuring of the political space in this country. The author identifies the role of party blocs/coalitions, as well as the specifics of party representation in the councils/representative bodies of self-governing regions of Slovakia. The combinations of party blocs/coalitions of political parties participating in 2022 local and regional elections in Slovakia are also studied. The author states that the electoral choice of the Slovakian population remains quite personalized, since the tendency to personify the images of political parties is clearly preserved. Given this, the relationship between the electoral support of separate political parties in the analyzed election campaign is traced in accordance with their parliamentary or non-parliamentary positions. The study characterizes the results of the main participants of the election races in the regional dimension, as well as the role of local or subnational party projects. The researcher traces the structuring of the party space in Slovakia based on the regional differences of various regions of Slovakia (especially along the «west-east» line). In addition, the parameters of the ideological positioning of political parties, as well as the peculiarities of the representation of separate ethnic groups at local level are determined. It is revealed that (overcoming the threshold of inclusion and representation) Roma parties have become a political institution that represents the interests of their ethnic group on a par with «Hungarian» parties, which have been representing the interests of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia for a long time. Finally, particular attention is paid to the division of the participants of local and regional elections into «pro-Ukrainian» and «pro-Russian» ones, in particular in accordance with the newest spectrum of party-political structuring.