Volume 11 Numbers 1/2

Winter/Spring 2002

Constitutional Watch
     A country-by-country update on constitutional politics in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR

Slovakia - In the country's first elections since 1998, the opposition party Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (MDS), led by the controversial and autocratic former prime minister Vladimir Meciar, won a sweeping victory in the ballot for new regional governments. Races for a total of 401 seats in eight regional assemblies and eight governorships were decided in two rounds of voting on December 1 and 15. MDS, running alone or as part of a coalition, won six of the governorships and an outright majority in five of the regional assemblies. The ruling national coalition won control of only one assembly and governorship-in Bratislava. Although the regional bodies will ultimately exercise considerable authority over many policy areas-including transport, health care, education, welfare, and environmental protection-their function was not well understood by the electorate and not even by some of the candidates themselves. What is more, the devolution of government functions from central to regional bodies was always driven more by EU incentives than popular pressure. This accounts, in part, for the low voter turnout of 26 percent in the first round and only 22.6 percent in the runoffs.

Unlike national elections, which are held according to a proportional electoral system, the electoral law passed in July established a majority system for the regional elections. (See Slovakia Update, EECR, Vol. 10, No. 4, Fall 2001.) Accordingly, parties formed electoral coalitions, prior to the voting, in an effort to win absolute majorities in individual races. This resulted in some strange combinations. For example, although Robert Fico, head of the Direction Party (DP), had long refused any cooperation with Meciar and still excludes the possibility of a coalition at the national level, MDS and DP made common cause in the Banska-Bystrica region, winning 22 of 49 seats. They met with similar success in Presov, capturing control with 30 of 60 seats; and, in a three-way coalition with the Party of Civic Understanding (PCU), in Trnava, winning a majority of 24 out of 40 seats.

The ruling national coalition-comprising the Slovak Democratic Christian Union (SDCU), the Christian Democratic Movement (CDM), the Democratic Party, and the Hungarian Coalition Party (HCP)-with the addition of the newly founded Alliance of the New Citizen (ANC), won an overwhelming majority of 40 out of 46 seats in Bratislava. As an indication of the extent to which coalition partners were locally determined, a coalition of SDCU, DP, and HCP won in Kosice with 24 of 57 seats. Without the aid of coalition partners, MDS won majorities in Meciar's home district of Trencin, sweeping all 45 seats, and in Zilina, winning 31 of 52 seats. Finally, HCP won an outright majority of 31 out of 52 seats in the district of Nitra, in which a large number of ethnic Hungarians reside, beating out a coalition of MDS, the Party of the Democratic Left (PDL), PCU, and the Democratic Center Party, which garnered only 20 seats.

After the elections, on December 18, the power of the regional administrations was further strengthened by an amendment to the original law on regional administration that was adopted in July. The amendment revokes the provision that empowered the central government to return to the regional parliaments any legislation it deemed to be in conflict with the interests of the state. The amendment passed by a vote of 59 to 30, with 19 abstentions.

The outcome of the regional elections was closely watched as a test of the various parties' popularity leading up to the national elections scheduled for September. Western leaders from the EU, NATO, and the US have all expressed concern about what Meciar's and MDS's return to power might mean for Slovakia's entry into the EU and NATO. The last government headed by Meciar, from 1994-98, was openly hostile to these goals and caused Slovakia to be excluded from early EU accession negotiations. In order to allay international fears, Meciar has repeatedly called for an agreement, most recently with President Rudolf Schuster on January 22, among all parties to maintain the country's foreign policy orientation toward the EU and NATO. Even still, skepticism remains as to the prospective policies of a populist Meciar government.

In general, there has been a marked tendency toward populist politics in Slovakia in the lead-up to the fall national elections, as the political parties credited with the implementation of liberal reforms (namely, the present governing coalition), have rapidly lost popularity. An opinion poll conducted in January by the Slovak Statistics Office showed the two populist parties to be leading in the polls by a significant margin, with MDS at 32.5 percent and the extraparliamentary DP at 13 percent.

The leftist parties in the governing coalition are especially vulnerable to charges of capitulating to the reformist policies of the center-right. In an attempt to bolster its flagging popularity, PDL has reoriented itself in a more populist direction. On November 17, the party elected Agriculture Minister Pavol Konkos as its new chairman, by a convincing margin of 256 to 90, over Peter Weiss. Weiss is a member of the liberal wing of the party, while Konkos represents the more conservative faction. Similarly, on January 21, Finance Minister Brigita Schmognerova (PDL) was dismissed from her ministerial post by her own party.

chmognerova has been a major force for reform and has been a strong advocate of austerity measures, with the result that she is held in high regard internationally but is extremely unpopular in Slovakia. She was replaced by Frantisek Hajnovic, an economist at the National Bank. Initially, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda refused to replace Schmognerova, staunchly defending her performance. But he eventually capitulated, on January 24, after PDL chairman Konkos threatened to withdraw from the governing coalition.

The replacement of the finance minister was more about politics than policy, since the budget was already passed on December 13, and there were no major reforms slated for the period preceding the elections. PDL maintained its confrontational stance, vis-à-vis its partners in the governing coalition, with its opposition to the privatization of the gas monopoly, Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysl (SPP). The sale of 49 percent of SPP is supported by the governing coalition and is fully expected by the EU, IMF, and international credit-rating agencies. However, PDL has proposed that the sale be limited to 24 percent, and that the remaining 25 percent remain under the management of the state-run Social Insurance Company. PDL is threatening to vote with MDS in parliament to block the sale.

Another matter stirring up populist sentiment in Slovakia concerned the adoption, in Hungary, of the so-called status law, which provides certain rights and preferences for ethnic Hungarians abroad. Slovakia has a Hungarian minority numbering approximately 600,000, or about 11 percent of the total population. (For more on the status law, see the Hungary Update in this and previous issues.) As in Romania, the law brought forth much criticism, with opponents arguing that it was extraterritorial and discriminated against Slovakians since it only provided measures for ethnic Hungarian Slovak citizens. But the Hungarian prime minister did sign an agreement with Romania addressing many of these complaints. This has not been the case in Slovakia.

On February 7, by a vote of 112 to 15, with most government parties and the opposition voting together, the Slovakian parliament adopted a declaration on the status law, stating that it violated the basic treaty between the two countries. It further declared that "parliament, taking into consideration the standpoints of relevant European institutes, and also doubts about the possible violation of stability in Central and Eastern Europe, declares that it does not agree with the application of the above-mentioned law's effect on Slovak territory." The opposition went even further, suggesting that bilateral treaties with Hungary be suspended and initiating-on the basis of treason charges-disciplinary proceedings against ethnic Hungarian deputies (including the deputy speaker of parliament) who applied for the Hungarian identity card. President Schuster criticized Prime Minister Dzurinda for his inability to broker a compromise with Budapest and for letting nationalist tensions dominate public discourse.

The next day, CDM drafted a bill that would make impossible the implementation of the Hungarian law since it forbids foreign state organizations from providing funds in Slovakia and forbids Slovakian organizations from applying the law of another state on Slovakian soil. The proposal also stated that any schools that received funds from the Hungarian state would have their share of funds from the Slovakian central budget decreased by that same amount. Dzurinda and the foreign minister were both critical of the proposal, which CDM submitted to parliament later in February. In response to Slovakian opposition to the law, on February 14, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, stated that Slovakia's continued criticism of the law could cause the Hungarian government to block Slovakia's accession to NATO, provoking even more outrage from the Slovakian side. Relations between the countries only soured further when, in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, Orban said the Benes decrees, which were issued in Czechoslovakia after World War II and expelled ethnic Germans from the country, should be annulled before the Czech Republic and Slovakia gain entry to the EU.

The Slovakian parliament could not begin its session on March 12, as scheduled, because HCP members would not approve the agenda, which included both the CDM proposal and a measure submitted from the Slovak National Party (SNP) to dismiss deputy parliamentary speaker Bela Bugar (HCP) for obtaining a Hungarian identity card, necessary to enjoy the benefits of the status law. The session got underway later, and Bugar ultimately survived the motion, as just 40 voted in favor of his dismissal and 57 against. The CDM proposal has not been voted on yet.

Relations between the two countries simmered down a bit when Hungary accepted a Slovakian proposal that a commission for minorities resolve the acrimonious issues stirred up by the status law. The controversy's final outcome remains to be seen, but it is clear that the law-and Orban's statements-had created much ill will between Budapest and Bratislava, putting HCP in a precarious position, especially in the months preceding September's parliamentary elections. Many had lauded the current government's efforts to bring the Hungarian party into the ruling majority. The recent events could certainly negate such progress and probably contributed to MDS's surge in popularity as well as the continuing dip in the standing of the ruling parties. A March poll showed that Meciar's MDS had a popular-support level of 29 percent and Fico's Direction Party, 15 percent; Dzurinda's SDCU had just 11 percent and HCP, 12 percent.
In January, the Constitutional Court ruled on two cases dealing with the protection of the rights to privacy and free speech. These two cases are especially important in that they mark the first time the Court has invoked its new powers, stipulated in Art. 125.2 of the amendment to the Constitution adopted in February 2001. (See Slovakia Update, EECR, Vol. 10, No. 1, Winter 2001.) Article 125.2 empowers the Court to suspend a law, or any part thereof, if its further application would harm basic human rights and liberties, as outlined in part two of the Constitution, or if it would have dire economic consequences.

In the first matter, on January 10, the Court suspended Arts. 102 and 103 of the Criminal Code, involving defamation of the republic, public officials, or institutions. Article 103 explicitly refers to defamation of the president in matters related to the execution of his official duties. The Court ruled that these two paragraphs could threaten freedom of speech, as described in Art. 26 of the Constitution, and should be examined further. Although the Court stated that the ruling was not directed at any particular case, there was a petition before the Court, brought in December by Deputy Tomas Galbavy and 37 other deputies, that challenged President Schuster's right to sue journalist Ales Kratky, from the daily Novy Cas, in response to a satirical article. The article, published in May 2001, dealt with the president's report to parliament on the state of Slovakia. The suspension of these paragraphs makes it effectively impossible to prosecute Kratky. Galbavy applauded the ruling but pointed out that Art. 156 of the Criminal Code contained similar language pertaining to speech directed against the country or its public officials, and that the Court should also suspend this article. Despite numerous amendments to the Criminal Code, these provisions have remained part of Slovakia's body of law since the communist regime.

The second Court ruling deals with the mandatory declaration of assets by all citizens whose wealth increases by more than 1.5 million Slovak korunas ($32,000) within any two-year period. This mandatory disclosure was imposed by decrees of the Ministry of Finance, which established a deadline of January 30 for complete disclosure. On January 24, the Court ruled that the requirement infringed on the right to privacy, as established in Art. 16 of the Constitution, as well as on the right to protection against unlawful data collection. The Court therefore suspended parts of Act No. 511/1992 in response to an appeal submitted by a group of deputies.

Although Meciar's political success makes EU officials nervous, eliciting thinly veiled warnings about the potentially dire consequences of a Meciar victory in September, Slovakia is making steady progress on EU accession. Slovakia finally resolved a scandal over mismanagement of EU aid funds, which had caused some of its aid package to be held up. (See Slovakia Update, EECR, Vol. 10, Nos. 2/3, Spring/Summer 2001.) The European Commission announced its decision to release the entire 106-million-euro aid package to Slovakia, on December 3, reversing an earlier decision to withhold the money. The EC declared that it had sufficient evidence that Slovakia had taken steps to implement a system of financial checks. In general, the EU Commission's report, issued in November, was more positive than prior reports. It emphasized Slovakia's progress on governance issues-including decentralization of public administration, passage of civil service law, and strengthening of judicial independence. The report did, however, criticize Slovakia's scant improvement of Roma rights and cited the need for immediate implementation of agricultural reforms.

Slovakia closed the difficult chapter of the acquis communautaire on environmental protection, on December 11, negotiating seven transition periods, ranging from 2 years for the controls on emissions from fuel storage and distribution to 13 years for the provision of sewage-treatment facilities in towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. And on December 21, Slovakia closed the financial-controls chapter, signaling the EU's satisfaction with Slovakia's attempts to combat financial crime. With these two successful negotiations, Slovakia has closed 22 chapters of the acquis. However, negotiations for the transport chapter foundered when Slovakia rejected a transition period of two to five years. Slovakia suggested that it would coordinate its position on the transport chapter with other candidate countries. The other chapters that remain open are agriculture, competition, regional policy, justice and home affairs, and financial and budgetary provisions. The closing of the agriculture chapter has been complicated by the EU's recent announcement that agricultural subsidies would be substantially limited during a long transition period. Many of the accession countries are strongly critical of this policy. Also, a cabinet decision on December 13 to guarantee 2.9 billion crowns in bonds to aid the ailing power company Slovenske Elektrane could compromise Slovakia's ability to close the competition chapter later this year.

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