Party president Béla Bugár leads the Hungarian Coalition Party’s (HCP) 30 person candidate list for the upcoming general elections. According to recent polls, HCP’s popularity is at 11.8 percent, 2.1 percent higher than the percentage of the ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia. The HCP presently has 15 representatives in the Slovak Parliament, but this unexpected support from ethnic Slovaks may lead to winning 18-20 mandates after the September 20-21, 2002 general elections and place it third after Vladimír Meciar’s HZDS and Robert Fico’s Smer. [MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest) June 29, 2002 and Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) July 1, 2002]

More than 90 well-known personalities signed a petition by the human rights group People Against Racism (LPR) to protest the parliamentary adjournment of an anti-discrimination bill submitted by Pál Csáky, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights, Minorities and Regional Development [see report of March 6, 2002] . Although the Slovak government amended the bill and called for an immediate vote, MPs removed the issue from the agenda after Vladimír Palko misleadingly contended that it will give homosexual couples to right to adopt children. Csáky told the Hungarian-language daily Új Szó that parliamentary speaker Jozef Migas promised to put the bill back on the agenda since the initiative seems to enjoy the support of three parties. LPR activists highlighted the need for an anti-discrimination law, and dismissed assertions that the Constitution provides sufficient protection against all forms of discrimination, since the police currently don’t have viable legal means to fight discrimination. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) June 27, 2002]

Dusan Caplovic, vice-president of the Robert Fico-led Smer party, expressed concern over ethnic Hungarian worshipers’ habit of singing the Hungarian national anthem at the end of church services. According to Caplovic, this tradition displays a certain “political opinion,” which is not compatible with loyalty to Slovakia. He further voiced the expectation that Catholic church leaders instruct priests to forbid the song. Marián Gavenda, spokesperson for the Slovak Catholic Conference (KBS), stated that the issue is a non-sequitur since the Hungarian national anthem is first and foremost a religious song, which is part of the ecclesiastical hymnal. Hungarian Coalition Party faction leader Gyula Bárdos expressed concern over what he sees as Smer attempts to regain falling political popularity by means of such anti-Hungarian rhetoric. Robert Fico’s extra-parliamentary party—the second largest political force in Slovakia with a current approval rate of 13.8 percent—is seen as critical to any future coalition government in order to prevent the Vladimír Meciar-led Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) from coming back into power. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) June 27, 2002]

The Slovak Parliament modified the so-called Slovak Status Law to enhance the effectiveness of institutions which maintain contact with the 2.5 million ethnic Slovaks living outside Slovakia. The amended law sets forth the creation of a Department for Ethnic Slovaks Living Abroad beginning August 2002. The institution will be part of the Prime Minister’s Office and lead by a Deputy Prime Minister responsible for outlining long-term strategies to preserve the ethnic identity of Slovaks living outside the country. The Cultural Ministry is entrusted with bolstering native-language education, while the Foreign Ministry decides who is eligible for the so-called “Slovak Card.” In a speech, Gyula Bárdos, Hungarian Coalition Party parliamentary faction leader, welcomed the amendments to the 1997 Slovak Status Law which made it possible for approximately 8,000 ethnic Slovaks—among them 300 in Hungary—to apply for the Slovak card. [MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest) June 26, 2002 and Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) June 27, 2002]

In a busy Bratislava/Pozsony square, nine neo-Nazis brutally attacked two 16-year old boys with baseball bats. One of the victims was hospitalized with multiple head injuries and later underwent a cranial operation. The incident took place in broad daylight, in front of dozens of passers-by, among them the leader of the human rights group People Against Racism (LRP), Ladislav Durkovic. The human rights activist subsequently stated that the action seemed pre-meditated since the assailants waited for their victims, donning masks once they appeared, and attacked them ferociously with the bats. Durkovic and a friend ran to the victims’ aid, scared away the assailants, and called for an ambulance and the police. Police claimed to have no knowledge of the incident upon inquiry from one of the victim’s fathers the following day. The LRP activist cited police negligence as the centrally-located place of the attack has surveillance cameras, which could have prevented the escape of the perpetrators and led to their identification. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) June 18, 2002]

“I will do everything in my constitutional power, using my moral authority, to ensure a high election turnout so that Slovakia stays on course towards democracy,” said Slovak President Rudolf Schuster following a 30-minute meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House. Schuster’s words have been widely interpreted to signal his intention not to appoint HZDS-President Vladimír Meciar Prime Minister, even if his party wins the September 20-21, 2002 general elections. The Slovak delegation also included Pál Csáky, Hungarian Coalition Party Vice-President and Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights, Minorities and Regional Development; Vladimír Kukan, Foreign Minister; and Jozef Stank, Defense Minister, who held talks with both Republican and Democrat U.S. Senators. After being dropped from the 1997 NATO expansion round while under the autocratic rule of Vladimír Meciar and cited for—among others—a poor minority rights record, Slovakia now seeks North Atlantic integration along with other post-communist countries. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) June 8, 2002]