GUGSP
© 1997, 98
Miro Sedivy |
GUGSP News Archive: 13 Apr - 19 Apr 1998
A summary of the most important events in the Slovak politics in the 16th week of the year 1998.
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WEEK 17
MONDAY 13 Apr 1998
... it was the Easter Holiday ...
TUESDAY 14 Apr 1998
So the Easter is over... People living in Slovakia have long and rich traditions in this religious holiday, and although the weather was not ideal, this Easter was like any other in the past.
On Sunday at about 1pm, there was an earthquake registered in Bratislava. Its epicenter, quite strong, was in Slovenia (one dead and several houses damaged), and very weak seismic waves could be felt also in south-western part of Slovakia, in Bratislava-Petrzalka, which is right behind the Danube river. Those who could feel some vibrations, should contact the phone number (+421-7) 375280. There were about 5 phone reports on Monday, that people felt something.
Today's Slovenska Republika (Slovak Republic) daily newspaper published a challenge to the Slovak government, deputies and mass media. The journalists of this pro-governmental paper demanded the people to face the attempts of the Sturovo (a small town in Southern Slovakia) local government to organize the referendum on Sunday.
The ex-President Michal Kovac declared a Referendum in February to be held on Sunday April 19, with four questions concerning Slovakia's entrance into NATO, deployment of nuclear weapons on Slovak soil, establishing military bases in Slovakia and the direct elections of the President of the Republic. As soon as Michal Kovac had to leave his office and the government took his power on March 03, the Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar canceled the referendum declared by Michal Kovac. The foreign observers and local media refused this step, but the opposition parties, Slovak Democratic Coalition included, did not do almost anything in this issue.
It was the idea of the Sturovo local parliament to organize the referendum, and one another Western-Slovakia village Svaty Jur (near Bratislava) declared the similar activity too (recently they decided not to organize the referendum). The regional procurator supposed Sturovo's referendum incorrect, and not in the competencies of the local government. Nevertheless, the Sturovo Mayor J.Oravec will organize this referendum.
So today's Slovenska Republika paper challenges everybody to face the attempts of Sturovo to organize the referendum. They demand the government to quickly discuss this issue on its today's session (the government didn't discuss it). The journalists of this paper want the Interior and Defense Minister to improve the police and military units to increase their ability in the town.
The Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar refused the whole challenge entirely. The Interior Minister Gustav Krajci promised he would do everything for that the law couldn't be violated.
The vice-chair of the Slovak National Party Anna Malikova said, that her party will use all the means to prevent the attempts to break the integrity of the Slovak Republic (country, not the paper). "We will protect our country in the Parliament if we have more deputies...", Malikova said.
The Democratic Union supposes it an "extremist shout" under the form of the system in the years 1950s. The Democratic Party refuses the idea of the power attack on the peaceful citizens of Sturovo. The Hungarian Coalition fully supports the referendum in Sturovo, which is "the isle of democracy and freedom" in the country.
The chairman of the Association of the Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS) Michal Sykora said, that Sturovo local government had the right to organize the referendum.
Sturovo Mayor J. Oravec said, that if over 50% of the Sturovo citizens participated and the result was evident, the municipal parliament would have to challenge the Slovak government to respect the result.
And this happens in the time, when the neighboring Czech Republic, who was at the same start line in 1993, has already been invited to join into NATO, and the deputies of the Czech Parliament are at this moment discussing on the Czech "YES" to NATO.
The "quote of the month", pronounced by Jozef Kroslak, the former (yes, already the former) spokesman of the Prime Minister in the dialogue with the journalist of radio Twist Karol Lovas, where Jozef Kroslak answered the journalist's question "Why did the Prime Minister leave his advisor?" by the following question: "And why did you leave your sweetheart?". Jozef Kroslak already resigned to this function, so the Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar is without his spokesman now... And he'll be without the spokesman of his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) soon - tomorrow. Vladimir Hagara, who was supposed the possible candidate for the place of the Prime Minister's spokesman, decided to leave his current HZDS-spokesman place. According to his words, he wants to help HZDS in the medial politics to win the parliamentarian elections.
The Foreign Minister Zdenka Kramplova left for an official visit to Ireland today evening.
The British government declared, that their country will face all attempts of the Czech and Slovak Roma, who would try to emigrate to the United Kingdom.
The most popular private TV Markiza will probably have to pay some fine because of the TV series X-Files. According to the law, the TV programs "dangerous to the psychical and moral development of children and youth", cannot be on TV in the time between 6am and 10pm. Tv Markiza stopped the reprises of X-files in the morning, but continues the "premiers" in the evening.
Fans of X-files argue by the fact, that the Slovak TV broadcasts the regular discussions with the members of the Slovak government on Wednesday evening since 8pm...
WEDNESDAY 15 Apr 1998
Concerning the upcoming referendum organized (only) in Sturovo on Sunday, Peter Ondera, the spokesman of the Interior Ministry declared, that the Police in accordance to the law, surveys the order and law in the country. "The referendum in Sturovo is violating the law, and the police will act as necessary", Ondera said.
The Interior Minister Gustav Krajci promised, that the citizens will be allowed to vote freely, that the police won't intervene "until the law is not violated..."
According to the information of Radio Twist, there were several journalists of the Slovenska Republika paper, who even didn't know about the challenge of their newspaper to the Prime Minister to use the police and army to face the attempts of the citizens of Sturovo (a small Southern-Slovakia town) to present their opinion in a referendum on Sunday. The challenge published in the paper on Tuesday was signed by the collective of the journalists of S.R.
Vladimir Meciar supposes the challenge as too exaggerated, and inappropriate to the current situation in Sturovo.
(for more information about the challenge, see news from yesterday)
The members of the petition committee for correct elections, led by the former President Michal Kovac, will meet the Sturovo Mayor Jan Oravec to get more informed about the upcoming referendum.
The spokesman of this petition committee Vladimir Palko, said, that the only mistake of this referendum in Sturovo was that it wouldn't be in the whole country. "The government thwarted the referendum already twice. We will fully support the referendum activity in Sturovo. And we would support it in any other town or village in Slovakia, if the local governments declared it."
...by the way, why the Slovak Democratic Coalition already did not initiate the referendum also in other Slovak towns and villages, like Sturovo local government decided...
Vladimir Palko also reported about the current situation in their petition for correct elections (if you're a citizen of the Slovak Republic, you can print the first and the second page of the petition sheet and send them to Bratislava). The Easter slowed down the daily amount of signatures, but it's increasing again. Yesterday (Tuesday), the petition had about 230,000 signatures (48,000 in Bratislava). Vladimir Palko believes that much more signatures will appear after the tomorrow's unsuccessful third round of presidential elections, when the people will already see clearly the only alternative in direct presidential elections.
The petition activity of the Slovak National Party for the re-establishment of the capital punishment and neutrality of the Slovak republic continues. The activists succeeded to collect nearly 5,000 signatures last week. They support their activity by the citations from the old religious book, according to which, "the capital punishment is not unrelated to the Christianity."
The Slovak Parliament will meet tomorrow, at the first scrutiny of the third round of the Presidential Election. There are three candidates: Milan Secansky (proposed by HZDS), Brigita Schmognerova (Party of the Democratic Left) and Zdeno Suska (proposed by independent deputy Miroslav Kocnar). It's almost sure the Parliament won't find 90 votes for any of these candidates...
The Association of the Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS) began its 8th general session, the last in this electoral period.
The Czech Parliament accepted the country's entrance into NATO today. Where is Slovakia?
The Christian-Social Union led by Viliam Oberhauser still is afraid of the influence of the violation and pornography on the screens of the private TV Markiza and the private radio Twist (quite strange to present such things in a radio...). According to their projects, it's a fact, that between 2pm and 10pm, there were 368 cases of violence in TV Markiza, and 237 cases of violence in the Slovak (state) TV.
THURSDAY 16 Apr 1998
The Parliament did not elect the new President in the third round again... Three candidates held their speeches first, then the deputies discussed for about 3 hours. Milan Secansky (proposed by HZDS) said, that it was necessary to cooperate with other democratic countries. Brigita Schmognerova (proposed by the Party of the Democratic Left) declared that the country needed the help from each citizen. Zdeno Suska (proposed by an independent deputy Miroslav Kocnar) held the absolutely shortest speech. He just said that it's necessary to help Slovakia. "If a man has to be happy for one day, give him a fish. If a man has to be happy his whole life, learn him how to fish", Zdeno Suska said.
The deputies then discussed in a very dramatic atmosphere. The results of the election were clear already a long time before, so they profited of it and insulted each other... Not really interested in the presidential election...
The official results were known at 3pm. A candidate needs 90 votes (out of 150-members parliament) to become the President. There were 59 deputies voting for Milan Secansky, 25 against and 41 refrained. Brigita Schmognerova got 43 votes for, 71 against and 11 refrained. Zdeno Suska was the less successful, when only 5 deputies voted for him, 63 against and 57 refrained.
The Parliament did not elect a new President in the first scrutiny of the third round, and the best two: Milan Secansky and Brigita Schmognerova will participate in the second scrutiny on April 30.
Roman Kovac (Democratic Union) declared, that as Milan Secansky received less then 60 votes in the elections, it would mean, that the governmental coalition (with over 80 seats in the Parliament) is not interested in having a new President.
On Tuesday, the government accepted a new law on communal elections. It was the "regular" governmental press-conference only today, but even the information about this law did not appear in the official communiqu‚ of the government. Nevertheless, the Interior Minister Gustav Krajci informed about this governmental proposition of the law.
According to this law, the communal elections should be based on a proportional system. This means, that also every nationality, living in the village or town, should have its representative in the local parliament. If, for example, there are 30% of Slovaks and 70% of Hungarians living in a village, this would mean, that 70% of the local-parliament deputies will be Hungarians, others Slovaks.
The nationality is the personal affair of each citizen. But it would be the key to the elections - the Slovak, Czech, or Hungarian nationality citizens can vote only for the candidates of the same nationality. If there's one Italian or French living in the village, he or she should be represented in the local parliament, and cannot vote for anybody else - just for another Italian or French. But he or she, being just one, cannot reach the necessary percentage to get into the Parliament. Gustav Krajci mentioned, that every one citizen has the right to freely choose his nationality.
Gustav Krajci got a question, whether such law is in accordance to the Constitution - "Yes, it is.", he replied.
According to the information of the regional headquarters of the Slovak Democratic Coalition, there were nearly 35 thousand citizens signed under the petition for direct presidential elections and correct parliamentarian elections in the Kosice region (750,000 habitants). The petition activity ends on 14th May.
The members of the petition committee, led by the former President Michal Kovac, met the mayor of Sturovo Jan Oravec. According to Michal Kovac, this would be really a very good message from Slovakia to the world. There are already quite many foreign media accredited in Sturovo (BBC,...). Jan Oravec mentioned, that all accreditations came only after Tuesday's challenge in the pro-governmental paper Slovenska Republika.
The town is preparing to the Sunday referendum. All vote rooms will be placed in the buildings belonging to the town, and not in the schools as usually.
Svaty Jur, a village near Bratislava is preparing to the referendum too. GUGSP incorrectly published, that the referendum wouldn't be in Svaty Jur, and we're apologizing for this incorrect information. The referendum will be in Sturovo and also in Svaty Jur on Sunday 19 April. Good luck!
Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) will have its general session next week. Vladimir Meciar is again running for the leader. The vice-chairs Sergej Kozlik and Augustin Marian Huska are again running for the vice-chairs. Olga Keltosova, who already settled in the United Nations Organization in New York, and Arpad Matejka will not attempt to become the vice-chairs of HZDS again.
Arpad Matejka is no more interested to participate in the top structures of HZDS, mainly because HZDS does not respect its own integration program, and also because of the non-transparent privatization.
The Party of the Democratic Left proposed two proposals of the constitutional law, which would modify the system of presidential election, with direct elections, no improvement of president's competencies.
The juridical process between the Slovak government and the VMV company, which issues the SME daily newspaper continued today by the inquest of several members of the Slovak government, the Prime Minister included. The journalists did not have an access to the room when Vladimir Meciar spoke, so the lawyer of VMV protested. The process will continue later.
In some media, there was a criticism to the new bulletin issued by the occasion of the World Universiad 1999 in High Tatras. This booklet, issued in the cooperation with the Donar agency (Donar organizes meetings and other activities of HZDS), speaking about the High Tatras nature, contains several pictures of Alps. (High Tatras is a part of Carpathian mountains, Alps are elsewhere...).
FRIDAY 17 Apr 1998
The Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar participated at the construction of the highway tunnel in Ovciarsko near Zilina. The tunnel is about 2.5 kilometers long and its interior volume is nearly 30,000 m3 and costs about 150 million SKK (about 5 million USD). Vladimir Meciar declared, that the highways construction will cost 10 billion SKK (one billion is one thousand million) a year until 2005. As the state budget suffers from lack of money, the Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar said, that the state will issue special bonds: "People can buy them, and they can also use their money they were unable to pay taxes from. The state won't check where the people took their money from."
Then, Vladimir Meciar officially opened the construction of another highway section by Puchov.
Brigita Schmognerova (Party of the Democratic Left) reacted to the statements of Vladimir Meciar about the "illegal money". She criticized, that the Prime Minister allowed the people to legalize their tax deceits.
Ludovit Cernak (Democratic Union) was shocked by the way the Prime Minister decided to "save" the economics of the country. "It seems the Slovak government is already down when it does not have problems to decide in this way..."
Several coalition deputies were asked by radio Twist, but they apparently did not understand the meaning of the Prime Minister's words...
The Regional Court in Nove Zamky (Sturovo belongs to this region) prohibited the Sunday referendum in Sturovo. The mayor of Sturovo Jan Oravec said, that this was not a legal decision, and that he will appeal within the limit of fifteen days. Nevertheless, the preparations to the referendum continue...
Ernest Valko (the former chairman of the Czechoslovak Supreme Court) stated, that the court didn't have the right to prohibit the referendum, and that he, personally, would participate in the referendum.
Today, 34 new judges vowed into the hands of the vice-chair of the National Council Rudolf Filkus. According to the Justice Minister J.Liscak, there are already about 1100 judges in the regional and local courts.
According to Dusan Macuska, a deputy for HZDS, the current vice-chair of HZDS Arpad Matejka had "higher goals than the abilities". Arpad Matejka recently decided not to continue in the top structures of HZDS. He will probably leave the politics, if nobody is interested in him.
The director of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) wanted to present the Report on the activity of SIS to the special SIS-controlling committee in the Parliament. However, two opposition deputies were not present, so the committee wasn't able to work correctly.
The former Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner (Christian-Democratic Movement - KDH) will soon run in the candidature for another member of this committee. Ladislav Pittner already ran in this candidature, but the Parliament refused him. KDH received a challenge to propose again a candidate, so Ladislav Pittner will try again.
According to the opinion poll of the Markant agency, 51% of the citizens would participate in the referendum declared by the president for 19th April (this Sunday). Unfortunately, the government canceled it again, so only the citizens of Sturovo and Svaty Jur can show their opinion to this issue. Markant published also the possible percentages of the positive answers to each question:
(1) Are you in favor of the deployment of Slovakia's membership in NATO? 68.8%.
(2) Are you in favor of the deployment of nuclear weapons on Slovak soil? 9.7%.
(3) Are you in favor of establishing military bases in Slovakia? 21.3%.
(4) Are you in favor of the direct elections of the President of the Republic? 91.6%.
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