17.06.2006
Slovakia: Vatican as Reason for Elections
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Simon Araloff, AIA European section
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Russian version
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During its four years of existence the present government of Mikuláš Dzurinda has endured a lot of crises from which it has managed to come out as a winner. So, for instance, in summer 2005 a liberal party Aliancia Nového Obcana / ANO (Alliance of a New Citizen), lead by the Minister of Economy Pavol Rusko, quitted from the structure of the government. Dzurinda had overcome the crisis with the support of the independent members of the parliament and also the "dissenters" in the ranks of the liberals. However the centre—right coalition of Dzurinda could not survive the parliamentary crisis that has bursted out on February 6, 2006. Just then the leadership of the Slovak Christian Democrat movement (Krest’anskodemokratické hnutie -- KDH), sometimes called by the local sharp fellows the "Slovak movement of Talibs", announced its secession from the government. It was the negotiations with Vatican on the treaty on the observance of the rights of the Slovak Catholics, making about 60 per cent of the local population, that turned out to be the stumbling-block.
The critics of the document declared that it would infringe upon the rights of other citizens of the country by giving the Catholics unfairly greater privileges. On the other hand, the Christian Democrats demanded immediate ratification of the agreement by the ruling cabinet to provide its introduction to be discussed in the parliament still up to the parliamentary elections scheduled for September. However, Eduard Kukan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, supported by his party boss Dzurinda, opposed the signing of the treaty. The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union -- Democratic Party (Slovenská demokratická a krest’anská únia -- Demokratická strana -- SDKÚ/DS), the party of Kukan and Dzurinda, demanded the completion of the treaty.
The other partners of the SDKÚ-DS in the coalition also have broken up into two camps. So, the Party of the Hungarian minority (Strana madarskej koalície -- Magyar Koalíció Pártja) has supported the Christian Democrats. In its turn, the ministers who one time had broken away from the ANO, have risen on advocacy of the position of the head of the government and the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thus, after the seccession of the KDH from the structure of the coalition, it has lost the majority in the parliament and the actual ability to administer state affairs. The largest opposition party, the Social Democrats (Smer-SD), and the Communists (KSS) have demanded to hold an early elections. The final result is that the head of the government and his party have agreed to hold an early elections that were set for June 17, 2006.
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