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Economic Conditions as a Traffic Light of the Far-Right Threat in the Regions of Slovakia –Where Should We Focus Our Attention? Cover

Economic Conditions as a Traffic Light of the Far-Right Threat in the Regions of Slovakia –Where Should We Focus Our Attention?

Open Access
|Dec 2025

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of the relationship between the economic situation and support for the far-right in elections using the example of Slovakia since 2020, assessing the risk of its further growth at a spatially disaggregated level. The input variables are the unemployment rate based on data from the 2021 census and the election results of far-right parties in the parliamentary elections in 2020 and 2023. We monitor the relationship at three spatially hierarchical levels –regional, district and local. We classify regions into four categories, municipalities and districts into seven categories, considering the potential for growth in support for the far-right, in the context of current support and the recent economic situation. In individual regions, we identified groups of municipalities with the highest risk of growth in support for far-right parties. In order to assess this risk at the level of districts in Slovakia, an FRG coefficient was created, with seven levels of assessment of its severity. While the western part of the country is doing well, the risk of growing support for the far-right is particularly high in central and eastern Slovakia. Special attention should be paid to the Horné Považie and Kysuce regions, the south of central Slovakia and several districts in the north-east of the country. This information can be valuable for political and civic actors at the central, regional and local levels, when trying to implement spatially targeted policies in the field of prevention and education, in order to address the issue of political radicalization at the sub-state level.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48128/pisg-2025-70.4-05 | Journal eISSN: 2543-7313 | Journal ISSN: 0208-4589
Language: Polish, English
Page range: 67 - 84
Submitted on: Jul 2, 2025
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Accepted on: Dec 5, 2025
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Published on: Dec 23, 2025
Published by: University of Warsaw
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2025 Martin Plešivcák, published by University of Warsaw
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.