Slovakia is a compact country, sandwiched between Austria and the Czech Republic to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, and Hungary to the south. It borrows a little bit from each of its neighbors. Linguistically and culturally it's closest to the Czech Republic, with whom it shared a common state for more than 70 years. With the Poles, the Slovaks share a deep Catholicism, and here as in Poland, you'll see people lined up at the church door on Sunday morning. Hungary ruled over the Slovaks for 1,000 years until 1918 and the Hungarian influence is still evident, if difficult to pinpoint. The easiest-to-see example might be in the cooking. The Hungarians brought the peppers and paprika, and Slovak goulash has been the better for it ever since. The Austrian influence is also strong but hard to describe. Vienna, for Slovaks, remains the ideal of class and manners, and every time the time a waiter nods as he serves you your coffee or strudel he's echoing a notion of Viennese civility going back centuries.
At press time, Slovakia was in the midst of another gut-wrenching lurch in government, this time from a moderate coalition of centrist parties to a more nationalist, pro-Slovak grouping. And that's how it's been since independence in 1993, with coalitions of nationalists being voted in and then tossed out in turn in favor of more centrist coalitions favoring the European Union and Slovakia's international obligations, and so on, and so on. The new government has the country's more liberal students and intellectuals hanging their heads in shame, but maybe it's fitting for a young nation still finding its feet that the natural yearnings for a strong national identity would play such a prominent role in politics.
The good news is that the shuffling and reshuffling of ministerial seats has not hurt the country economically or culturally. Slovakia is making the most of its entry into the European Union in 2004, and the government has adopted a host of far-sighted economic measures, including a 19% flat income tax, that has led to boom in foreign investment. The economy is now one of the fastest growing in Europe.
People & Culture -- With the country's expanse of unspoiled nature, Slovaks, generally speaking, fancy themselves as simple folk, with a taste for fun, rich food, and strong drink. Folk music, while certainly an anachronism, can still be heard in some of the smaller towns and villages. Slovaks are generally known for being gregarious, generous, and loyal. On the negative side, they can sometimes seem stubborn or even hotheaded. Of course, these are generalizations. In reality there are as many "typical Slovaks" as there are people living here.
The vast majority of the population is ethnic Slovak, though a sizable minority of around half a million Hungarians still lives in the south of the country along the Hungarian frontier. There's also a large community of Gypsies, or Roma, spread out around the country, most living in squalor in the countryside or in decrepit public-housing projects outside the large cities. The Roma represent a seemingly intractable problem for the Slovaks. The Roma, with some justification, say they are routinely discriminated against and forced into substandard schools and living quarters. The Slovaks, for their part, say the Roma rigorously resist integration into mainstream life. There's truth on both sides, but sadly no solution in sight.
