SLOVAKIA POLITICAL ROUNDUP, JUNE 1-20, 2005

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000472

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM PINR SMIG LO
SUBJECT: SLOVAKIA POLITICAL ROUNDUP, JUNE 1-20, 2005

REF: BRATISLAVA 434

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Scott N. Thayer for Reasons
1.4 (B) and (D).

WHO WROTE THE DAYTON ACCORDS? MECIAR, OF COURSE!
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1. (C) Former Prime Minister and current HZDS leader
Vladimir Meciar is currently studying English. The brother of
his private teacher told Poloffs that the teacher is
regularly subjected to long, delusional speeches about the
MP's accomplishments. Meciar's most outlandish claim to date
was that he "wrote" the Dayton Accords, and that Amb. Richard
Holbrooke stole the idea off his desk.

UNHCR: SMUGGLING ROUTES MAY BE CHANGING
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2. (SBU) Pierfrancesco Maria Natta, the Representative of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bratislava, told
Poloff that he thinks European smuggling routes are changing,
and shared asylum and refugee data that backed up his claim.
In 2004, 11,391 people applied for refugee status in
Slovakia; so far in 2005 only 1,157 have done so. Natta told
Poloff that the opening of new refugee camps in central and
eastern Slovakia (augmenting older camps along the Austrian
and Czech borders) have done away with the "free ride" that
travelers entering from the east used to receive by
requesting refugee status. Natta says that in the past,
smugglers and traffickers both could use refugee status as a
way to have the Slovak government transport people to the
Schengen frontier, where they then terminated their refugee
applications, and continued on their voyages. Natta said
that a decrease in applications in Austria make him believe
that the smuggling routes in Europe have changed, possibly
moving north through Poland or south through Hungary.


3. (SBU) Natta expressed his concern that smugglers and
traffickers continue to be active within Slovakia's refugee
camps themselves. He said a camp administrator who was found
to be working with smugglers was relieved of his position at
the camp, but continues to be employed by the GOS. He also
worries that the small number of unaccompanied minors who
arrive as refugees annually (191 last year, 44 so far in
2005) could be easy targets in the future for traffickers.

ROBERT FICO'S WAR ON CRIME
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4. (C) Smer party leader Robert Fico continues to enjoy
widespread popularity among 30 percent of Slovak voters, in
part because of his ability to tailor his message to his
audience and be "all things to all people." While this has
made for a rather fluid policy platform, Fico apparently has
found one issue upon which all are united: crime. Fico, an
attorney by profession, recently published and distributed a
glossy, 28 page newspaper insert called "Us Against Crime: A
Practical Guidebook on the Fight Against Criminality." The
insert features sections on personal security, how to hide
money and valuables in your home and office, securing your
car, deterring pickpockets, and how women can fight their way
out of a sexual assault. The publication was, of course,
laced with photos of Fico and other Smer luminaries.

MP APOLOGIZES FOR "INJUSTICES" TOWARDS HUNGARIANS
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5. (U) After receiving the prestigious International Prize
of St. Vojtech in Budapest, KDH MP Frantisek Miklosko gave a
speech in which he apologized to ethnic Hungarians for the
injustices (including forced displacement from Slovakia)
committed against them by the post-war Czechoslovak regime.
KDH declared that the speech represented Miklosko's personal
opinion and not the official stance of the party, though they
added that Miklosko continues to enjoy their "trust."
Opposition parties, meanwhile, criticized Miklosko's apology;
HZDS claimed that Slovakia has no reason to apologize to
Hungary, while SNS leaders declared Miklosko a "traitor."

19,000 SLOVAKS SOUGHT JOBS IN UK AFTER EU EXPANSION
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6. (U) At a conference on Slovakia's first year in the
European Union, British academic Tim Haughton discussed EU
expansion's affects on employment and immigration in the UK.
Haughton said that in the first 11 months after expansion,
175,000 workers came to the UK from new member states; 57
percent were from Poland, 15 percent from Lithuania, and 11
percent (over 19,000) from Slovakia. Of these 175,000
workers, only 43 were given public "council" housing by the
British government, and only 216 drew unemployment benefits.
Haughton spoke highly of the benefit these workers have had
on the British economy, and noted that the numbers had
quieted many critics who had predicted that "welfare
tourists" would come to take advantage of the social welfare
system.

KANIK DEALS WITH CORRUPTION, CONSIDERS ENDING SDS
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7. (C) A former terrain social worker for Roma now working
in the Social Development Fund in Spisska Nova Ves told
Poloff recently that new EU funds are being grossly
mismanaged in eastern Slovakia, with corrupt officials
skimming liberally off the top of the grants. He told Poloff
that Minister of Labor Ludovit Kanik recently fired several
Ministry officials after the program was audited, but has
tried to keep the firings quiet to "save face." According to
our source, the micro-project funds at the local level are
extremely susceptible to mafia interference.


8. (SBU) On the party front, post has also heard that Kanik
may be considering the dissolution of DS (the Democratic
Party) to join formally with SDKU (with which he had formed a
coalition relationship prior to the September 2002
elections). An NGO activist and DS member tells us that if
this happened, he expects that about half of DS members would
join SDKU; the other half would go independent.

THAYER


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