GUGSP
© 1997, 98
Miro Sedivy |
GUGSP News Archive: 09 Mar - 15 Mar 1998
A summary of the most important events in the Slovak politics in the 11th week of the year 1998.
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WEEK 12
MONDAY 09 Mar 1998
The group of deputies of the Slovak Parliament, led by the vice-chair Rudolf Filkus, went to the United States yesterday. They're meeting the members of the American Congress, having a very difficult task. To convince their partners about the democratic progress in the Slovak Republic. Just a few days after the U.S. Foreign Ministry strongly criticized the last-week steps of the Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, whose decisions on the Amnesty and abolishment of the referendum, really frightened the foreign diplomats about the possible future of the country in the heart of Europe. Nevertheless, the vice-chair of the Slovak Parliament Rudolf Filkus, explained, that "everything is according to the Constitution". This is probably the sentence the Slovak deputies will often use in their communication to the American representatives. Tonight, the visitors from Slovakia will watch the NHL match Washington Capitol vs Calgary Flames.
After the U.S. Foreign Ministry criticized the steps of Vladimir Meciar, also the Czech President Vaclav Havel declared his worries about the current situation in Slovakia. Havel believes there's a democratic potential, dreaming in the Slovak society, and the time, when it awakes, is not so far. The Czech Foreign Minister Jaroslav Sedivy said, that they were analyzing the situation and will act soon in accordance to the necessary events. The Foreign Ministry of the Slovak Republic declared, that the Czech President Vaclav Havel should care about the situation in his own country better.
As every Monday, the regular coalition dialogues have been held today between Vladimir Meciar (HZDS), Jan Slota (Slovak National Party) and Jan Luptak (Association of the Slovak Workers). Jan Slota said after the meeting, that the last-week amnesty was the affair of HZDS. Then, the presidential candidature of Vladimir Meciar for the third round is not probable, and SNS will maybe propose their own candidate. Jan Slota is also sorry about the statements of the Czech President Vaclav Havel, and Slota proposed Havel should care about the problems in the Czech republic. Jan Slota also strongly criticized the current position of the United States, which "dictates in the Central Europe even more than Moscow before 1989".
The delegates of the European Committee and OBSE came to Slovakia for a short visit. The vice-chair of HZDS and the Slovak Parliament Augustin Marian Huska said, that the European Union cannot request Slovakia to be more perfect than EU itself really is.
The surprising results of the inquiry "Who would you vote for in the next elections?" (see results), in which the Slovak Democratic Coalition lost nearly 9%, and the new-formed Party of the Civic Comprehension (SOP) reached 14%. Mikulas Dzurinda, the spokesman of the Slovak Democratic Coalition, which leads just 0.1% before the second HZDS, they still have to analyze the results, and to think over next work of this 5-leaders coalition.
Three Magyar parties: Magyar Christian-Democratic Movement, Magyar Civic Party and Egyuteles (Living-together), demanded the Interior Ministry to register a new Party Magyar Coalition. This is one of the steps, the Magyar minority politicians want to perform before the elections.
The European Parliament will probably send a resolution to the Slovak government because of anti-democratic steps last week.
According to Dusan Macuska (HZDS), the party will probably propose Vladimir Meciar to the third round of Presidential Election.
The last-week steps of the quasi-President / Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar have been strongly refused by the opposition. The Democratic Party: "The Amnesty is a hope for political terorists"; Social-Democratic Party in Slovakia: "HZDS wants to establish a regime of one party and to return before November 1989".
The chairman of the Constitutional Court, often called "sick element on the political scene", Milan Cic is not for the new Constitution, but only for several modifications.
TUESDAY 10 Mar 1998
The European Union sent a protest to the government of the Slovak Republic because of non-respecting the principles of the lawful state, presented mainly by the last-week Prime Minister's amnesty for all crime acts concerning the last-year Referendum, and the kidnapping of the President's son. Nevertheless, the European Union will fully support the citizens of the country.
The law expert of HZDS Jan Cuper commented this EU's statements, as "a stupid politics of the Slovak opposition". Opposition deputy Milan Knazko emphasized, that this was not the first critics of EU and it was impossible to oversee it.
The Czech Republic and Poland want to see Slovakia in Europe, although the current situation is not the most ideal... The Czech President Vaclav Havel said, that the citizens of Slovakia would tell once "Enough!", and the things would go better. The Polish President Alexander Kwaszniewski is afraid that Slovakia is already far from a standard democracy.
The Foreign Ministry of the Slovak Republic called for the Czech charge d'affaires Miroslav Rames, and strongly protested against the statements of the Czech President Vaclav Havel on his current visit to Poland, criticizing the current situation in Slovakia after the last-week's amnesty declared by Vladimir Meciar.
The spokesman of HZDS Vladimir Hagara said, that the opposition was acting undemocratically, and had always been blocking the election of a new President in the Parliament... (???). That was the reason, why HZDS proposed such a novelization of the Electoral Law, which would avoid political conflicts, and "it would improve the quality of the work in the Parliament"...
Since November 1989, there were 108 political subjects registered in Slovakia. Twenty of them already disappeared from the political scene, so the 88th political subject has been registered today. The Party Slovak Democratic Coalition, still with no real political personalities on its head, is just a necessary alternative for the politicians of the current Slovak Democratic Coalition consisting of five parties. In the case the new electoral law does not allow these five parties to enter the elections, the Party Slovak Democratic Coalition will be the only possibility for democratic powers to influence the after-elections situation in this country.
Although the Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar canceled the referendum declared by the former President Michal Kovac for 19 April 1998, there are already two small towns that will hold this plebiscite. After the last week's decision of the municipal parliament of a South-Slovakia town Sturovo, also the representatives of one small village near Braitslava decided about the same. The deputies of Svaty Jur parliament decided, by 10 votes out of 14, that the referendum declared by Michal Kovac will ask people about Slovakia's entrance into NATO and the direct presidential elections. Which towns will succeed the example of Sturovo and Svaty Jur?
The Slovak Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ivan Mjartan announced, that the Czech government would discuss about the possible return of the reserves of the "Slovak Gold" tomorrow on its session. Nevertheless, according to the official governmental information, the Czech government won't lead such discussion tomorrow.
According to the former Health Care Minister T. Sagat, the director of the hospital in Malacky, a small South-Western-Slovakia town, has been recalled, just because he refused to sign the application for the membership in HZDS...
WEDNESDAY 11 Mar 1998
The government created a special committee, whose chair is Vladimir Meciar, and the members are several members of the government, who will work on several proposals of the novelization of the Slovak Constitution.
Frantisek Sebej, the vice-chair of the opposition Democratic Party, said, that the yesterday's resolution of the European Union, sent to the Slovak government, wouldn't have any influence on the politics of Meciar's cabinet. The European Parliament wants Meciar to cancel his last-week's decisions on the referendum and amnesty. According to the vice-chair of the common EU-Slovakia parliamentary committee P. Ruebig, the European Union keeps the door open, but Bratislava does not seem to do something positive for the entrance.
According to the chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OBSE) Bronislaw Geremek (also the Polish Foreign Minister), the Slovak government accepted the OBSE observers to participate at the parliamentarian elections in September. There were several negative reactions of the coalition politicians, who do not suppose necessary to watch the elections, as it is necessary in Albania or Bosnia. However, the OBSE observers visit also such countries as USA or UK.
According to the public inquiry performed by MVK agency last week, Michal Kovac (the former President) is more popular than his political rival Vladimir Meciar (the Prime Minister). When evaluating their activities, 10.7% of respondents think, that M. Kovac's work was very good (11% for Meciar), 36.5 almost good (24.6% for Meciar), 28.7% almost bad (27.5% for Meciar) and 18.7% of respondents think, that M. Kovac was a very bad President (32.7% for Meciar). Together, it makes 47.2% (good) - 47.4% (bad) for Michal Kovac, and 35.5% - 60.4% for Vladimir Meciar.
The former Health Care Minister Tibor Sagat (now in opposition) said, that the current Health Care Ministry proposed to the Insurance Companies to pay the money for medicaments just to "good" pharmacies, whose owners do not protest against the current negative situation. Jan Gajdos from the Health Care Ministry refused any such Sagat's statements, as the Ministry is just searching for the best way from these problems.
THURSDAY 12 Mar 1998
The European Parliament in Strasbourg sent a resolution to the Slovak government and the Slovak Parliament. They request the guarantees to free, regular and democratic parliamentarian elections, respecting of the human and civic rights. There were 226 deputies in the European Parliament, 193 voted for, 13 against and 20 did present their opinion. The European Parliament protests against the last-week's steps of the Slovak Prime Minister, who declared two important amnesties, and canceled the referendum. The European deputies are afraid of the concentration of the whole power into the hands of one person "showing more and more totalitarian manners."
The different political subjects in Slovakia reacted to the declarations of the European Union:
HZDS: EU's position is incorrect, and its sources of information are mostly from the Slovak opposition.
Slovak National Party: EU does not have the right to comment the interior affairs of a country. More statements EU gives about Slovakia, lower the value of each one really is.
Christian-Democratic Movement: EU's statements prove, that the government gives no chance to Slovakia to join into European Union.
Democratic Union: Vladimir Meciar does everything to avoid Slovakia's entrance into EU, because they would have to respect the democratic rules.
Governmental Office: All steps of the government have been done in accordance with the Constitution.
Foreign Ministry of the Slovak Republic: Slovakia has a permanent interest to join into European Union...
The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of Slovakia Milan Tokar compared the current relation between EU and Slovakia to the relation between a prosecutor and the accused. He said, that it was "a monologue, not a dialogue".
According to the employees of the RM-system Slovakia (shares system company), the representatives of HZDS sold one third of 51% shares of a mines company in Western Slovakia. They received the shares for 1 Slovak koruna (less than 0.03 USD) from the Fund of National Ownership (FNM), and sold them for 44.8 million SKK (~1.3 million USD).
According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, there's no meeting between Zdenka Kramplova (SR) and Jaroslav Sedivy (CR) prepared. The chiefs of diplomacy of both countries had to meet already in December, but the Czech side canceled the meetings after the very primitive statements of the Slovak Prime Minister on the meeting of his party about the Czech representatives. Prague, still, watches carefully the situation in Slovakia and analyzes it thoroughly.
According to another public inquiry of MVK agency performed last week, 71.5% of the respondents want Slovakia to join into European Union, 15.5% are against, and 13% did not answer. Another question concerned Slovakia's entrance into NATO, where 47.5% accepted, 38.4% refused and 14.1% did not comment our entrance into NATO. When comparing different political subjects, in average about 87% of SDK supporters want to enter into European Union, and 80% into NATO. Only 31.3% of HZDS supporters are for NATO, and 66% for EU. Other parties: Party of the Democratic Left (77% for EU, 50% for NATO), Slovak National Party (64% for EU, 26% for NATO), Magyar Coalition (94% for NATO, 90% for NATO).
The spokesman of HZDS Vladimir Hagara said, that HZDS would win elections with 25% of advance before any second political subject... (????????) Well, now HZDS has about 23%, and Slovak Democratic Coalition has 24%, new-formed Party of Civil Comprehension has about 14%. It would mean that HZDS wants really to change the system of elections???
FRIDAY 13 Mar 1998
Tomorrow is the 14th March, the 59th anniversary of the foundation of the Slovak Republic in 1939. This "first Slovak Republic", controlled by the Hitler's Germany, is now very confronted by different points of view. The Slovak National Party is celebrating it, as the first state of Slovaks, but it's a fact, that the political system in those-times Slovakia caused the death of many thousands Jewish people. In 1941, the Slovak republic declared war to the Soviet Union, and was also one of the loosing countries in the WW II. Fortunately, the Czechoslovak republic has been re-established in 1945, and was supposed to be one of the winning countries.
The Slovak National Party strongly criticized the statements of the Czech President Vaclav Havel, when he was afraid of the continually worse and worse situation of democracy in Slovakia.
Two opposition deputies Ladislav Pittner and Robert Fico criticize the government for a non-existence of a central control of the fight against the organized crime.
The devise reserves of the National Bank are 3.229 billion USD, which is currently the highest value of the year 1998. This amount is enough for the current foreign debt of Slovakia, which reaches 1.18 billion USD. (A note to European readers: 1 billion is 1 thousand million or 1,000,000,000 - I'm not using the European name "milliard")
Vladimir Meciar said for the Slovak Radio, that the foreign institutions demand him to violate the law and Constitution, when speaking about the last-week's decisions to cancel the referendum and declaration of two amnesties.
According to the vice-chair of the Slovak National Party Anna Malikova, the requested 5%-limit for political parties to enter the Parliament is correct and SNS is not afraid of their future, as although they do not reach always 5%, they'll get certainly to the Parliament.
The vice-chair of the Democratic Union Jan Budaj, the question of the leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition is important. Now, SDK has 5 leaders, which are also the leaders of the five political parties in the coalition. A few months ago, Mikulas Dzurinda (from Chistian-Democratic Movement) has been chosen as the spokesman, which is now very near to the leader of SDK, Budaj said.
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