SLOVAKIA POLITICAL ROUNDUP JULY 17 2006

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000586

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/16/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KPAO PINR SOCI LO
SUBJECT: SLOVAKIA POLITICAL ROUNDUP JULY 17 2006

REF: A. BRATISLAVA 404

B. BRATISLAVA 461

Classified By: Ambassador Rodolphe M. Vallee for reasons 1.4(b) and (d)
.

FICO ASKS PASKA AND KALINAK TO COVER HIS BACK
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1.(C) Slovakia's new Speaker of parliament, Pavol Paska,
informed DCM that he had not wanted the job he is now in.
Nor, he said, did fellow Smer party deputy chairman Robert
Kalinak desire the Interior Minister slot. Kalinak had
preferred to be Defense Minister. However, Prime Minister
Robert Fico asked Paska and Kalinak to accept their current
positions in order "to cover my back." Paska was given the
herculean task of controlling Smer's coalition partners, the
nationalist SNS and Vladimir Meciar's HZDS, in parliament.
Kalinak's position is necessary to cover the governing
coalition against the outrages of SNS party leader Jan Slota.
Paska, though, worries more about the potential dealings of
the unpredictable Meciar over Slota, who is considered to be
all-talk-no-action.

ROMA PRESS CONFERENCE DRAWS A FULL HOUSE
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2. (U) Using an approach of active engagement, a group of
pro-Roma NGOs is lobbying the new government to keep their
constructive campaign promises to minorities and
disadvantaged groups when drafting the government's program
plan. The young Roma activists -- with assistance from
trainers from the National Democratic Institute -- displayed
a noteworthy level of political sophistication in their July
13th press conference, during which they also appealed to the
public not to prejudge the current government nor to idealize
the former government's actions on Roma issues. The group,
spearheaded by the New Roma Generation and the Milan Simecka
Foundation, offered their cooperation in finding ways to
solve difficult problems within the Roma community. The
event received widespread media attention. All Slovak TV
stations, several radio stations, and other journalists
covered the event. The Slovak all-news television station TA3
conducted an in-studio interview with Romani activist and
political candidate Peter Pollak later that day.


3. (U) In a live phone interview with TA3, the new Deputy
Prime Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Dusan Caplovic
offered an open and inclusive relationship. He invited
Romani NGOs to participate in finding solutions to the
problems of the Roma communities. Caplovic is meeting with
the Plenipotentiary for Roma Affairs, Klara Orgovanova, this
week. He is tentatively scheduled to meet with the New Roma
Generation and the Milan Simecka Foundation next week.

MP'S SON LEADS SKINHEAD GROUP - BUT WHICH MP?
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4. (C) According to a contact at the Ministry of Interior,
the head of the skinhead movement in Slovakia is the son of a
new Smer MP. The contact would not say which MP nor give the
name of the son, but said that under his leadership the
skinhead movement in Slovakia has consolidated. Smer, the
largest party in the Slovak Parliament, has 50 MPs. The MOI
source says that the Ministry has penetrated the group, now
based in Nitra about 55 miles east of Bratislava, and has "a
man on the inside."

BENOVA: ANYONE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN SNS
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5. (U) Tensions have been rising between PM Fico and Smer
Deputy Chairwoman and representative to the European
Parliament Monika Benova (her newly married name is
Flasikova) as a result of the party's alliance with SNS.
Since the formation of the coalition, Benova has been
vehemently speaking out against Smer's decision to include
SNS in the government. According to media reports, she says
she cannot overlook the presence of the anti-minority SNS in
the government, as her grandparents were Hungarians and her
uncle had been in a concentration camp during World War II.
A possible candidate for Foreign Minister prior to the
election, Benova said this week that she would never accept a
ministership under the current government. She fears that
Fico's choice of coalition will only create enemies abroad,
isolating Slovakia "as severely as Meciar had back in 1994."
Benova disclosed to the daily Sme that the majority of Smer
had, in fact, been against the current coalition, but now
hers remains the sole voice of dissent within the party.
Although other members of Smer, including Fico himself, have
argued that a coalition with HZDS and SNS was the best
choice, Benova believes that a coalition with HZDS and "any
one of the parties from the former government" would have
been better. Since Fico and Flasik (Benova's husband) had a
falling-out last year, Benova has been outspoken and critical
of Fico but has not left the party.


BRATISLAVA 00000586 002 OF 002


GOVT FAILED TO DISTRIBUTE PROMISED FUNDS TO NGOS
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6. (SBU) According to the NGO "Citizen and Democracy," the
former GOS failed to distribute large portions of previously
allocated EU and Slovak government funds to local NGOs. The
funding program in question requires the GOS to match the EU
funds evenly (ref B),although the NGOs suspect that the
government inappropriately used a 70-30 formula in some
cases. As little as 10 percent of the funds have been
distributed, the NGO claims. The government should
distribute the money on a reimbursement basis. The NGO
community believes that the reason the Ministry of Labor and
Social Affairs has been throwing up bureaucratic obstacles --
e.g., continually changing its paperwork requirements and
even rejecting documents for incorrect punctuation -- was so
that the government could keep the funds on the state budget
books as long as possible. A number of approved projects
have been in the implementation phase for over a year. The
lack of reimbursement threatens the ability to maintain
ongoing projects and has meant that some NGOs cannot pay
their utility bills. A group of NGOs sent an open letter to
several EU Commissioners to ask them to rectify the problem.
The new government has not yet addressed the issue.

NAT'L MEMORY INST: LET'S COOPERATE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
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7. (SBU) A July 13th visit by a U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum (USHMM) representative to the Slovak Institute of
National Memory (UPN) reinforced the deep level of
cooperation between the two bodies, based on an agreement
signed last February. The high degree of organization of
UPN's archives and their willingness to share all their
documents noticeably impressed the USHMM official. USHMM
plans to supply a microfiche-ing camera and funds for
technicians to UPN to enable digital document sharing. UPN
staff feels a sense of urgency due to the unknown future of
their organization. Because of the unexpected death last
month of UPN Chairman Jan Langos, the Slovak Parliament will
need to nominate and approve a new Chairman. UPN staff is
concerned that party politics and a desire to keep the pasts
of some of the government's current players hidden will
outweigh the organization's legal mandate to publish all
formerly-secret government documents from the authoritarian
governments during WWII and communism. The Parliament may
debate a new UPN Chairman nomination in October. In the
final words of one UPN official, "We need to do as much as we
can as soon as we can."

YOUTH ORGANIZATION HOUSES INTERNET SEX COMPANY
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8. (SBU) In what is perhaps a sign of the economic times, the
Slovak youth agencies' building in downtown Bratislava is
rumored to be renting space to an internet sex company. The
building, whose lobby is still decorated with a communist-era
"Young Pioneers" mural, houses youth-related NGOs and clubs
like the Youth Council of Slovakia and Slovak Scouting. A
steering committee of Slovak youth agencies still maintains
control of the building and has approval rights over new
tenants -- it is unknown whether they were aware of the true
intentions of the new business tenant. With rents in
Bratislava skyrocketing over the past few years, some
non-profit workers fear their well-meaning organizations will
be pushed into the far suburbs.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT'S SUMMER SCHEDULE
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9. (U)

Jul 18: State Secretaries (Deputy Ministers) announced, Smer
to have 13, SNS 7, HZDS 6

Estimated Jul 25/26: Presentation of government program to
Parliament for approval

Estimated Aug 4 - late Aug: VACATION

Estimated late Aug/early Sep: Regular parliamentary session
begins
VALLEE