In this Alcide de Gasperi seminar, Dr Marián Sekerák, a 2022 recipient of the International Visegrad Fund Research Grant at the HAEU, will present his work on federalisation projects in Central Europe in the mid-20th century, focusing especially on the contribution of intellectuals, publicists, politicians and diplomats, either of Slovak origin or born in the territory of the (current) country. In his paper, he analyzes their views as well as the broader theoretical and geopolitical context of the Central European political developments at the time from a historical and political-theoretical perspective.
In the first part of the paper, he presents an overview of federal concepts of Central (and Eastern) Europe. He subsequently provides a conceptualisation of Slovak emigration, since many thinkers emigrated from Czechoslovakia after WWII. The main focus is on the concepts of the 1940s and 1950s as offered by several federalist thinkers with different ideological and personal backgrounds: M. Hodža, J. Ursíny, J. Lettrich, Š. Osuský, F. Durcanský, K. Sidor, P. Prídavok, Š. Polakovic, J.A. Mikuš, J. Kirschbaum, J. Šramek, J. Géci, A. Grébert, and L. Gestetner.