GUGSP
© 1997, 98
Miro Sedivy |
GUGSP News Archive: 19 Jan - 25 Jan 1998
A summary of the most important events in the Slovak politics in the 4th week of the year 1998.
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WEEK 5
MONDAY 19 Jan 1998
The Fund of the National Ownership (FNM), institution responsible for the control of the state ownership in the privatization, will have to pay 10,000 SKK (~300 USD) to all people older than 70 years, who participated in the second round of the coupon privatization. However, this state-controlled institution does not seem to have enough money, as it used to sell factories, state companies, hotels, and many other state enterprises to selected persons for just a little money. Last week, the FNM decided to take a credit from a foreign bank for 100 million DEM (~ 70 mil. USD), to pay its 10,000 SKK debt to all people older than 70 years. Just for these! And there are much more people younger than 70 years, who must be paid in the future years.
The tomorrow 37th Parliamentary session, initiated by the opposition in the issue of the mandates of deputies Hruska / Spisak and Belan / Gaulieder will be very probably postponed until the Constitutional Court answers to the Chairman of the National Council, whether the Parliament can have 151 deputies or not.
The coalition does not seem to want to elect a new president in the first round. Today, it was definitively the last possibility to propose an official candidate. The Presidential Election, held on 29th January will offer three candidates, who are very probably without any chance.
The Interior Ministry still does not prepare the new Election Law, but the Interior Minister Gustav Krajci said, that they won't put a new law, they'll just novelize the old one. Among other modifications, they want to have just one vote district (instead of 8), to request 5% for each party in the coalition, and to let the "independent election courts" to control the elections instead of the committees composed of all parties.
According to Vladimir Meciar, the government should be partly modified before the current President ends his period. After, it won't be possible to change a governmental member without the President.
In the year 1997, there were over 90,000 criminal acts in Slovakia, of which only 47% have been solved. There were 140 murders (91 explained), 30 ordered murders (only 2 explained) and 98 explosions. The most expensive stolen car was a Mercedes for nearly 200,000 USD. There were 108 cases of falsified 1000 SKK banknotes (~30 USD) and over 8000 cases of falsified 1000 Austrian Schilling banknotes.
There are four hot candidates for the first Slovak cosmonaut on the Russian spaceship MIR. These candidates (32, 34, 39 and 43 years) are currently intensively studying the Russian language to understand the commands on that old and failures-full spaceship.
TUESDAY 20 Jan 1998
The 38th Parliamentary session about the mandates of two deputies who seem to be in the Parliament even if the decision of the Constitutional Court is different, began today at 3pm. There were 136 deputies, of which just 58 accepted its discussion points. Therefore, the 38th session was probably the shortest - it took just 30 seconds to end it after it began. The opposition deputies argued, that if the program of the session is once set up, the Parliament cannot decide whether it accepts or not. The opposition already begun completing signatures for another session.
The Prime Minister's speaker released a very interesting information - the government received a telegram from one (not concretized) Slovak embassy abroad, that there's an attempted murder prepared on Vladimir Meciar, supported from Slovakia (by 1,000,000 DEM paid from Slovakia), organized before the 25th February.
Meciar's movement HZDS does not currently prepare to stave off the Parliamentary Elections in September, but though, the opposition does not have any chance to win them, said the speaker of HZDS.
The Education Ministry will release just single-language versions of school reports, even in the bilingual regions, in the Hungarian schools. They can release also bilingual reports, but for a fee, and these reports won't be officially valuable, just for an information.
WEDNESDAY 21 Jan 1998
The Fund of the National Ownership (FNM), institution responsible for the control of the state ownership in the privatization, is paying out 10,000 SKK (~300 USD) to all people older than 70 years, who participated in the second round of the marred coupon privatization. There were long queues of old people in front of the special offices today. People were not well informed, and they had to wait for hours and hours, and sometimes, they even had to return back again because of some missing documents. Of course, some very old people could not stand so long time, and they risked their health for 10,000 SKK, which the state owes them.
There are no new information concerning the prepared attempted murder on the Prime Minister. No Ministry was able to comment it, and the Prime Minister's speaker did not have time for the journalists...
Six weeks before the Slovak President ends his function period, the Czech Parliament re-elected Vaclav Havel for the President of the Czech Republic. The Czech TV asked several Slovak politicians, who congratulated to him, just the Slovak Government did not release any comment to this election.
The 40th Parliamentary session will be held on 28th January - it's about the same subject as the 38th session was yesterday - about the mandate of deputies Jan Belan and Ladislav Hruska, who seem to be in the Parliament in the contradictory with the decisions of the Constitutional Court. The opposition deputies will probably initiate new extra sessions until the Parliament reacts to this democratic request.
THURSDAY 22 Jan 1998
The fifth summit of eleven Central-European Presidents will begin tomorrow in East-Slovakia historical town Levoca.
The HZDS deputy Dusan Macuska will accuse the current President Michal Kovac as soon as he leaves his office in forty days. Macuska has several not-concretized proves of Kovac's economic criminality. Kovac refused to comment this during the Levoca summit.
The Slovak Foreign Minister Zdenka Kramplova went to Hungary for a meeting with her Hungarian colleague Laszlo Nagy. She met also the Slovak nationality citizens in Hungary.
The Finance Minister Miroslav Maxon refuses any ideas of a currency crisis in Slovak republic, which has been previewed in March or April.
FRIDAY 23 Jan 1998
The Presidents of the eleven Central-European countries met today in the East-Slovakia historical town Levoca on the fifth summit. Michal Kovac, the current Slovak President, who ends in forty days, officially invited also the Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, who did not react at all. However, there was still one representative of the government on the evening concert - the Justice Minister K. Tothova. The summit ends tomorrow.
Still before Michal Kovac ends on 2nd March, there are several possible changes in the government, as there's nobody who can accept any minister's resignation without the President. The Environment Minister Zlocha refused any such statements about his resignation.
The Slovak government spent a day in the Central Slovakia, visiting some villages and factories, to learn as much as possible about the regions' life.
The Parliamentary Elections are nearing. It seems to be clear, that the current governmental coalition looses on its popularity, while the Slovak Democratic Coalition composed of five parties gets more and more popular. Of course, the governmental coalition is afraid of loosing the autumn elections, so it's trying to save itself.
Nowadays, they want to propose a new election law, that would modify certain primary election features. For example, it requests five per cent to every one party in the coalition for the entrance to the Parliament. Let's have, just a very improbable example, a coalition composed of 21 small political parties (there are about 80 registered political subjects in Slovakia), so it should get at least 105% to get into the Slovak Parliament... not possible? A few years ago, the leading party in one former USSR country won the elections with 107%.
Another new "feature" of the law is, that the whole country would mean one and only vote district. So one sort of vote tickets for the whole country, one list of candidates of one party for all voters. In 1990, 92 and 94 (I do not remember before), there were four vote districts, as many as the regions. Two years ago, the state has been re-divided into eight regions, which meant a lot of new offices, procurators, courts, new structures. So it would be logical to use these eight districts also in the elections. No, they want one and only district, so that parties with one strong leader (don't you know any?) would get votes from the whole country.
Last, but not least new feature is that not the representative of all the parties take the control on the elections, but the "independent" courts.
By the way, the Elections should be in September...
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