REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN ON SLOVAK REPUBLIC'S ACCESSION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

By the end of 2013, ten years will have passed since the end of the process of the integration of the countries of the Eastern Bloc with the European Union. Among those, Slovakia also found its place. The accession constituted a symbolic return to the family of the European countries which became victims of the division of the war trophies of the superpowers in the last war. Joining the elite club of the rich Europe was an act of justice in history. The paper presents the process of the campaign and the accession referendum on the Danube riverside as seen by a Pole who is a research worker of the Institute of Journalism, Warsaw University. The Slovakian campaign was very short and, practically, absent in media and in the streets of towns and villages. An advantage of the Slovakian campaign was reaching, for the first time in the referendum, the 50 percent threshold of attendance. It should also be noted that Bratislava joined the negotiations two years after Poland and Hungary. During the voting an event occurred - totally impossible to envisage in other countries of the former Eastern Bloc. After the first day of voting - fearing a low level of attendance - the media activity was reinforced by major Slovakian politicians: the representatives of the ruling coalition, opposition, and fanatical political opponents. They resolved unequivocally to favour Slovakia's joining the European Union. The consensus was temporal and was pragmatic in character; however, the politicians were able to demonstrate that integration with the EU is a common issue. Such a situation would have been difficult to envisage in any post-Communist country.