1938 Slovak parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia on 18 December 1938 following the German annexation of the Sudetenland.

1938 Slovak parliamentary election

← 1935 18 December 1938 1946 →
All 63 seats in the Assembly of Slovakia
First party   Leader Jozef Tiso Party HSĽS–SSNJ Alliance United List Seats won 47 Seat change 33 Percentage 97.5%
PM before election Jozef Tiso HSĽS–SSNJ Elected PM Jozef Tiso HSĽS–SSNJ

Background

On 6 October 1938 Slovakia declared autonomy,^[a] with Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (HSĽS) becoming the dominant political party in Slovakia. Some parties were partially forced to merge with HSĽS, whilst others were forbidden (Jewish parties, the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party) or their activities were suspended (e.g. Slovak National Party which refused to "voluntarily" join HSĽS). New Hlinka's Slovak People's Party - The Party of Slovak National Unity (HSĽS-SSNJ) then organized rigged elections to strengthen its position in Slovakia and for further negotiations with the central government.

The elections were announced in the afternoon on Saturday 26 November 1938. Political parties were required to register by the next day, but the information was only officially published on Monday and in the daily press the following Thursday.^[1] The campaign contained strong anti-Czech and anti-Jewish propaganda, with those seeking to vote against labelled as traitors.

Electoral system

The election took the form of a referendum, with voters asked only one question "Do you want a new, free Slovakia?"^[2][3] The elections were supervised by the Hlinka Guard, which had to find out how people voted. In many places, the government created separate polling stations for members of national minorities to trace their political preferences and "loyalty".

Voters were presented with a United List of 63 candidates.^[2]

Results

Of the 63 members of the United List elected, 47 were members of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, four were former members of the now-defunct Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants, two were members of the new German Party and one was a representative of the Hungarian minority.^[2]

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
	United List		Hlinka's Slovak People's Party – Party of Slovak National Unity		97.5	47
			German Party			2
			United Hungarian Party			1
			Independents			13
Against					2.5	–
Total						63
Source: Teich et al., Nižňanský[4]

Aftermath

Josef Tiso used the results for the reconstruction of the autonomous government, thus weakening the influence of other former parties which "voluntarily" joined HSĽS. The first session of the new Diet of the Slovak Land was held on 18 January 1939, with Martin Sokol [sk] elected as its chairman and Jozef Tiso as Prime Minister.^[2] On 14 March the Diet accepted independence, following Tiso's explanation of his discussions with Adolf Hitler in which the latter had ordered the Slovak government to declare independence.^[3]

Notes

1. The new status was confirmed on 22 November 1938, when the National Assembly passed a law granting Slovakia political autonomy

References

1. Nižňanský, Eduard (2010). Nacizmus, holokaust, slovenský štát [Nazism, holocaust, Slovak state] (in Slovak). Bratislava: Kalligram. p. 77. ISBN 978-80-8101-396-6.
2. Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown (2011) Slovakia in History, Cambridge University Press, p169
3. Lorman, Thomas (2019). The Making of the Slovak People's Party: Religion, Nationalism and the Culture War in Early 20th-Century Europe. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-1-350-10938-4.
4. Nižňanský, p32