European Diary: Business isn't going so well lately, admits Martin, the owner of a Karat, a small Slovak memorabilia shop perched on the edge of Bratislava's picturesque old town.
"Eight years ago I used to sell a lot more of these," he says, pointing to the state's blue, red and white national flag. "Fewer people are buying flags and badges now."
It is 12 years since the EU's youngest state gained its independence from its better-known neighbour the Czech Republic following a parliamentary vote, so it is perhaps understandable that the nationalist fervour and flag-waving is beginning to wane. But after 45 years of communist rule surely Slovakia can't be tired of democracy just yet?
That is the question that observers are asking after the lowest ever turnout in a local election last month, when just 11 per cent of voters cast a ballot.
"It is not only the fault of politicians, but also of the public, because they don't want to grasp that only they can change the state of affairs," Slovak president Ivan Gasparovic told the media in the wake of the hugely disappointing election turnout. "In the vote itself, the politician is secondary. It's the voter who is most important."
The last round of regional elections held on December 10th saw eight chairmen elected to Slovakia's higher territorial units, or "VUCs". The average turnout was 11.1 per cent in the round, with the highest turnout of 16.19 per cent reported in the Nitra region and the lowest turnout of 7.12 per cent in Trencin.
In an earlier round of voting in November turnout was slightly higher, at 19 per cent.
A straw poll conducted on the streets of Bratislava on the merits of the election produces a few quizzical looks and a lot of head scratching. A waiter at the popular Slang Pub says he can't remember any recent elections, while another man says he heard something about them but he didn't take part himself.
Clearly, the regional elections weren't headline news in Bratislava, where just 10 per cent of the public cast a ballot in the final round of voting.
"The media certainly did a sloppy job in explaining the importance of the regional elections," says Beata Balogova, editor-in-chief of the English language Slovak Spectator. "After all, these were only the second regional elections held in Slovakia and people here still have a mindset that power and decisions comes from the centre."
Despite the lack of interest in the elections, VUCs hold considerable power over local issues and can levy local taxes, organise education and transport services.
Indeed, they are one of the most prominent examples of decentralised government in the former communist states of eastern Europe, according to political analysts.
Slovakia's deputy prime minister, Pal Csaky, agrees that there wasn't a lot of information available to the public on the role of the VUCs during the campaign.
"The political parties did not conduct effective campaigns for these bodies, and I think citizens interpreted it then as a kind of second-class election. But I am sure that in the next period there will be a chance to prepare better," says Csaky in an interview with The Irish Times.
However, a turnout of just 25 per cent in the European Parliament elections held last year suggests a dangerous trend in such a young and still immature democracy.
"There is a declining trend in voter turnout in Slovakia since 1998 when 75 per cent of the population turned out to vote," says Grigorij Meseznikov, president of the Institute of Public Affairs, an independent public policy think tank in Slovakia.
He puts this down to "election fatigue" and an apathy caused by several efforts to keep controversial former prime minister Vladimir Meciar out of office.
Mr Meciar was a crude, authoritarian politician who steered Slovakia away from the EU when he took power in the 1990s. He was finally ousted from power in 1998, enabling the coutnry to change course and achieve entry to both the EU and Nato. However his party, Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, polled 20 per cent in the last national elections. He will stand again in a general election scheduled for this September.
So is there a danger that a low turnout in September could let him back into power?
"No, I think it is a dying party, and even if the party joined a coalition government I think Meciar would be forced to stand down as leader," says Meseznikov, who predicts a better turnout of between 50 and 60 per cent in the next national elections.
Back on the streets of Bratislava, just a few hundred metres from SNP Square, where thousands of people gathered to protest against communism in the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989, I finally find two students who had at least heard of last month's elections.
"No I didn't vote and I don't think most my classmates voted," says Zuzana Zatkova (22).
"I couldn't get back to my home town to cast a ballot in the elections because I study at Bratislava University. But this is the first election that I haven't voted in."
Zatkova and her friend, Andrea Fedorkova (21), both say they will definitely be voting in the general election in September. "We know this is an important election," says Zatkova, who is on her way to the US embassy to apply for a visa for a summer job in the US.
Come September, the pollsters will be hoping that students like Zatkova and Fedorkova make it back from their travels to cast their ballots to reinvigorate politics in Slovakia. If not, democracy could be in trouble in Europe's youngest state.