RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  24 August 1999


WHEN FOUR TIMES FIVE MIGHT EQUAL ZERO
by Michael Shafir

	Some 300 days after the four-party ruling Slovak
coalition took over the helm, the cracks in that coalition
are threatening the country's political stability. The
presence of a "Romanian syndrome" of decision-making
paralysis, mutual accusations among the coalition partners,
and political cronyism is beyond dispute.
	Mikulas Dzurinda's cabinet was formed by four
formations--the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK), the Party
of Civic Understanding (SOP), the reformed-communist Party of
the Democratic Left (SDL), and the Hungarian Coalition (SMK)-
-most of which have different social, economic, and political
priorities.
	Like the SDK, the SMK is a political product of former
Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's midwifery. To circumvent an
electoral law that raised the parliamentary hurdle for
political alliances, three parties representing ethnic
Hungarians merged to form the SMK before the 1998 elections.
But unlike the SDK, the SMK currently shows few cracks. The
cementing force is the coalition partners' failure to fulfill
promises made before the elections. As in Romania, where the
unity of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania is
safeguarded by the struggle of its many wings and various
ideological views on how to enforce ethnic Hungarian demands
its on coalition partners, the SMK is already threatening to
"review" its participation in the coalition.
	In the first place, Agriculture Minister Pavol Koncos of
the SDL refused to appoint an SMK party member as head of the
Slovak Land Fund, ignoring what the SMK claims was a "verbal
agreement" whereby it withdrew its demand for the agriculture
portfolio. The SMK is suspected by the SDL--not to mention
the opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and
the xenophobic Slovak National Party--of intending to use the
land fund to restitute to ethnic Hungarians land confiscated
under the Benes decrees. Second, the SMK is dissatisfied with
the law on the use of minority languages in contact with
official authorities, which it considers too restrictive.
Passed by the parliament on 10 July, that law was mainly the
brainchild of Deputy Premier in charge of legislation Lubomir
Fogas of the SDL. Not surprisingly, Slovak media reported
that the SMK is demanding the dismissal of both Koncos and
Fogas.
	Set up on the eve of the 1998 elections by five center-
right parties that, like the SMK, aimed at circumventing
Meciar's new electoral law, the SDK is the major coalition
partner. It is also the party most affected by the Romanian
"coalition of coalitions" syndrome. The five "mother parties"
of the SDK--the Christian Democratic Movement, or KDH, the
Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Union, the Democratic
Party, and the Green Party--agreed before the elections to
separate again after the ballot. Following the ballot,
however, Dzurinda opposed dismembering the SDK.
	That stance put Dzurinda on a collision course with KDH
leader, Justice Minister, and former Premier Jan Carnogursky,
who, understandably, objected to seeing Dzurinda, a former
KDH member, becoming the dominant personality in Slovak
politics. But the Democratic Union and the Democratic Party
have also advocated--though less emphatically than
Carnogursky-- a return to a looser alliance formed by the
"mother parties." Dzurinda says that option is "out of the
question."
	Carnogursky has led the campaign that ended on 9 August
with the ousting of former Transportation Minister Gabriel
Palacka, Dzurinda's most loyal minister. Palacka's ties with
Dzurinda date back to their employment in the Czechoslovak
railways company and were strengthened when he became the SDK
treasurer. The premier was very disturbed about the forced
departure of Palacka, who was held responsible for
irregularities in appointments at the ministry and
privatization tenders supervised by it. He openly attacked
Carnogursky, admonishing him for causing "government
instability."
	Nor is Palacka the only ally of Dzurinda to have come
under criticism. Economy Minister Ludovit Cernak, who managed
the premier's 1998 electoral campaign, has been linked to the
privatization scandal caused by businessman Vladimir Poor's
sale of his shares in the Nafta Gbely refinery to the
Cincinnati-based Cinergy Company. Whereas Carnogursky and the
media blamed the deal on Cernak, Dzurinda deflected the blame
on National Property Fund (FNM) chief Ludovit Kanik and his
deputy, Ladislav Sklenar, demanding that both resign. He was
able to have the government approve a resolution calling for
their resignation but failed to have the parliament endorse
it. Carnogursky and, above all, the Democratic Party, which
had nominated Kanik, came to the FNM chief's defense. All of
which made Czech journalist Peter Schultz wonder, in an
article published in the 16 July "Lidove noviny," whether
Dzurinda was not promoting a sort of "Meciarism without
Meciar" by defending his own cronies and attacking those of
his adversaries.
	 Dzurinda's conflict with the Democratic Party may have
serious consequences. The most ardent promoter of the long-
due economic reforms is Privatization Minister Ivan Miklos,
who is a member of that party. Should his party leave the
coalition, Dzurinda might find himself surrounded by strange
bedfellows. The SDL, true to its origins, is refusing to back
the Miklos-sponsored bill on the privatization of large
state-owned companies, insisting that the state keep a
majority stake in energy and gas distributors as well as a 34
percent stake in banks. The Romanian parallel is once more
striking, but in Romania it is the Democratic Party that
plays a role like that of the SDL in Slovakia.
	Meanwhile, the HZDS is hinting that the SDL and the SOP
may leave the coalition and help Meciar return to power. Is
Dzurinda's four-party coalition multiplied by the SDK's five-
party "coalition of coalitions" about to result in zero?

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