Discussion and conclusions

The radical right parties are characterized by their nationally oriented program and appealing to traditional Christian values. Our analysis has shown that support for the radical right is high in regions with a low proportion of national minorities.

However, the influence of religiosity on the support of the radical right has not been confirmed. A higher proportion of the young population is associated with higher support for the radical right. This may mean that the radical right ideology is attractive for first-time voters. We assume, that this indicates that this generation faces different challenges, which traditional political parties do not reflect. A comparison with the results of other parties shows that a higher proportion of the young population in districts is also associated with the support of socialist, Christian but not liberal parties, which is a surprising result.

Socio-economic factors are an important factor in the support for the radical right. Both higher unemployment rates and low education are an important factor in supporting the radical right in Slovakia. Despite the long-term decline in the unemployment rate in Slovakia, unemployment in several regions remains at high, above 15 percent. We can therefore confirm that ignoring long-term decline (or stagnation) of regional labour markets leads to the support of the radical right, what is consistent with findings of Rodríguez-Posé (2018) or of Dijkstra, Poleman, Rodríguez-Posé (2018). As the results for other political groups have shown, higher unemployment rates also mean a shift of political support from liberal and conservative parties. Surprisingly, higher unemployment rate is not associated with the support of socialist parties, which are traditionally a natural choice for this group of voters. A higher share of low-educated people is asso-ciated with the support of the radical right, but also of the socialist parties. This finding is consistent with findings of Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier (2007) or of Lewis-Beck and Nadeau (2011).

Regions lagging behind for a long time and regions facing structural changes are breeding ground of political instability in a country. The cohesion policy in Slovakia, which aims to support of catching up processes in these regions, is not effective in this respect. The volume of support in the districts of the Slovak Republic is not a significant factor of support for anti-system parties. This finding is consistent with the one from Fidrmuc, Hulényi, Tunali (2019) However, it is important to carry out a more detailed analysis, as the effect of cohesion policy may vary depending on the type of support. There may be a distinction between soft measures (eg education) and infrastructure investments.

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by Scientific and Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic under the contract No. VEGA V-19-147-00.

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MAGDALENA MICHALAK¹, ALEKSANDRA NOWAKOWSKA²,