OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 141, 23 July 1996

SLOVAK COALITION PARTY TO INITIATE CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. Slovak
National Party (SNS) deputy chairwoman Anna Malikova on 22 July
announced that her party will initiate several measures dealing with the
Hungarian minority, Slovak media reported. Domestic measures include
speeding up the passage of the Penal Code amendment on the protection of
the republic, the submission and passage of a local election law "based
on the proportional principal according to nationality," and the
reevaluation of constitutional articles 15 and 34. Article 15 prohibits
the death penalty, while Article 34 deals with ethnic minority rights.
Malikova said the latter should be changed to ensure that minorities
have not only "the right" but also the "obligation" to master the state
language. The SNS also wants to pass a law setting conditions for
erecting monuments in Slovakia. Concerning foreign policy, the SNS will
soon inform the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly about the
"problematic position of Slovakia's Hungarian minority." -- Sharon
Fisher

HUNGARIAN POLITICAL UPDATE. Opposition Christian Democratic
parliamentary caucus leader Tamas Isepy and Zoltan Trombitas of the
Young Democrats on 22 July rejected the possibility of forming a
coalition with the ruling Socialist Party, Hungarian media reported.
Both leaders said cooperation with the Socialist Party is currently
inconceivable since it is a communist successor party. However, if the
Socialists transform into a genuine social democratic party, such a
coalition could be possible, they said. They were reacting to an
interview with Socialist vice president Gyorgy Janosi the previous day,
when he said his party would welcome a coalition with the two opposition
parties after the 1998 parliamentary elections. Janosi criticized the
Socialists' current junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats, and
stressed that the two opposition parties' programs are closest to that
of the Socialists. The current government's austerity measures have hurt
the ruling parties' popularity as Hungary's short-term economic
prospects remain unfavorable. -- Sharon Fisher

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Carla Atkinson