The Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising as a Platform for the Creation of Enemies of Slovakia

The Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising as a Platform for the Creation of Enemies of Slovakia

Slovak National Uprising

use of history

public events

securitization

moral panic

immigration

Slovak politics

The focus of this study lies in the instrumental use of history as a tool forthe legitimization of political claims. Our paper is related to the SlovakNational Uprising, which plays a crucial role in the national mythology ofSlovakia. This role is a reason why the annual celebrations of this historicalevent are one of the most important political occasions in the country.Many politicians use the celebrations as an opportunity to highlight manypolitical issues and address a broad audience. Using semi-participantobservation, we analysed five anniversary celebrations of the event (2015–2019) and the securitization strategies inherited in the speeches ofpoliticians at the celebrations. We showed that not only topics related to thelegacy of the anti-fascist uprising (e.g. contemporary right-wing extremism)are securitized or serve as objects of the creation of moral panic duringthese events. Some other, unrelated actors/phenomena are securitized orlabelled as a threat as well – especially immigration and the politics of theEU. This fact notwithstanding, the legacy of the SNU was always used forthe legitimization of securitization/creation of moral panic.

Naxera, Vladimír

Krčál, Petr

Czech Journal of International Relations; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2020); 5-20

2788-2993

2788-2985

10.32422/mv.55.1

Institute of International Relations Prague

2020-03-01

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Research Articles