Slovak People's Party

Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (Slovak: Hlinkova slovenská ľudová strana), also known as the Slovak People's Party (Slovenská ľudová strana, SĽS) or the Hlinka Party, was a far-right clerico-fascist political party with a strong Catholic fundamentalist and authoritarian ideology. Its members were often called ľudáci (Ľudáks, singular: ľudák).

The party arose at a time when Slovakia was still part of Austria-Hungary and fought for democratic liberties, the independence and sovereignty of Slovakia, and against the influence of liberalism. After the formation of Czechoslovakia, the party preserved its conservative ideology, opposing Czechoslovakism and demanding Slovak autonomy. In the second half of the 1930s, the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe and the party's inability to achieve long-term political objectives caused a loss of the party's faith in democratic procedures and saw the party turn towards more radical and extremist ideologies such as fascism.

After a merger with other parties in November 1938, which formed the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party – Party of Slovak National Unity, it became the dominant party of the Slovak State. In addition to adopting a totalitarian vision of the state, it included an openly pro-Nazi faction, which dominated Slovak policy between 1940 and 1942. The party chairmen were the Slovak priests Andrej Hlinka (1913–38) and later Jozef Tiso (1939–45), and its main newspapers were the Slovenské ľudové noviny (Slovak People's Newspaper, 1910–30), Slovák (The Slovak, 1919–45) and Slovenská pravda (The Slovak Truth, 1936–45).