Success or Failure of a Newcomer? The Hlas-SD Party as a New Player in the Slovak Party System

This article is an analysis of the establishment and subsequent role of the HLAS-Social Democracy (HLAS-SD) party on the Slovak political scene with a focus on its position in the system of cooperative-competitive interactions in the early elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic in September 2023. First, it examines the new party in the broader context of the emergence of new political parties generally, which has been a long-term characteristic of the formation and development of the Slovak political system. Second, it investigates the ideological programmatic orientation of the party and its position in the scheme of cooperative-competitive interactions and cleavages in Slovak politics over the last three years. HLAS-SD represents a particular form of Slovak social democracy and, with this ideological orientation, faces competition not only from political parties of a different orientation but also from the programmatic sister party SMER-SD. Finally, the article maps the development of electoral support for HLAS-SD as captured by regular opinion polls and shown by the results of recent elections. Shortly after its establishment, HLAS-SD became for a time preferentially the most supported political entity, but later its electoral strength declined significantly. In this case study we analyse the party positions following the elections and, considering all three mentioned dimensions, explore the development of electoral support for HLAS-SD and its subsequent role in the party system.