SLOVAKIA POLITICAL ROUND-UP AUGUST 25, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRATISLAVA 000719

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

GENEVA FOR LABOR ATTACHE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ELAB LO
SUBJECT: SLOVAKIA POLITICAL ROUND-UP AUGUST 25, 2006

REF: A. BRATISLAVA 666

B. BRATISLAVA 586

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NEW JUSTICE MINISTER WANTS TO SCRAP SPECIAL COURT
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1. (SBU) The Justice Ministry, under the auspices of new
Justice Minister Stefan Harabin, has prepared draft
legislation to close the Special Court and the Special
Prosecution Office. Former Justice Minister Daniel Lipsic
provided a copy of the draft to the media. According to the
draft, both institutions, which were established during
Lipsic's tenure to fight organized crime and public
corruption, would be shut down in January 2007. Lipsic
commented that the dismissal of well-known mafia-fighter
Jaroslav Spisiak as Police Vice President and the planned
closure of the special crime fighting judicial bodies proves
that the new GOS is "mafia-friendly", a phrase that was
repeated often by the opposition during the parliamentary
debate over the government program statement in the first
week of August (ref A). In response to Lipsic's recent press
conference, the Justice Ministry said that the draft bill is
only one of several possible options and the Ministry has not
yet come to a final decision. President Ivan Gasparovic
publicly confirmed his support for the closure of the Special
Court. His reasoning is that the normal court system can
sufficiently handle cases involving judges and public
officials. (COMMENT: We note that the two Deputy Justice
Ministers recently told us the regular courts were suffering
great backlogs, so it's not evident to us how they would be
able to pick up the additional corruption cases. END
COMMENT.) Prime Minister Robert Fico has not commented on
the issue. Eight Slovak civil society NGOs have banded
together in an appeal to the GOS to prevent the closing of
the two institutions.


2. (U) On August 25, the Justice Ministry published an open
letter to Lipsic asking him to reimburse the Ministry for SKK
2.49 million (USD 80,000) for a survey that he authorized
during his time as Minister. In Minister Harabin's view, the
survey was intended to improve Lipsic's communication
strategy and public relations not only as Justice Minister
but also as a member of KDH (Christian Democratic party).
The Justice Ministry will consider legal action against
Lipsic if he does not return the money within 30 days.

NATIONAL MEMORY INSTITUTE TO BE HEADED BY A NATIONALIST?
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3. (U) According to Slovak media, the ruling coalition has
agreed that the post of Chairman of the National Memory
Institute (UPN),which is dedicated to publishing the secret
files of the authoritarian regimes which ruled Slovakia from
1939-1989 (ref B),belongs to the Slovak Nationalist Party
(SNS). The chairmanship has been vacant since the death of
the institute's founder Jan Langos in June. SNS unofficially
tabled three names, with 70-year-old Arpad Tarnoczy allegedly
the leading possibility. Tarnoczy, a former HZDS MP,
unveiled a memorial plaque in 1997 to Jozef Kirschbaum, a
diplomat of the pro-Nazi Slovak state during WWII and the
head of Hlinka guards who were notorious for rounding up
Slovak Jews and sending them to concentration camps.
According to Jewish Community spokesman Jaro Franek,
nominating Tarnoczy as Langos's replacement is a "gross
mockery of everything Langos represented and embodied."
Deputy Prime Minister Dusan Caplovic denied a political deal
on the issue but SNS MP Rafael Rafaj confirmed the candidacy
of an SNS nominee. Leading coalition party Smer has not
expressed support for Tarnoczy and may yet come up with
another candidate. The opposition parties will likely join
together to nominate a single candidate. HZDS Chairman
Vladimir Meciar opined that UPN has already fulfilled its
role and should be subsumed into the Slovak Academy of
Sciences. DPM Caplovic, of Smer, publicly disagreed with
Meciar's view. The new UPN Chairman must be approved by a
simple majority of parliamentary deputies who are in session
on the day of the vote, which should be September 7.


TRADE UNIONS ENJOY INCREASED INFLUENCE WITH GOS
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4. (SBU) The Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak
Republic (KOZ) is pleased with their level of influence with
the new government. One media commentator even called the
trade unions the fourth member of the ruling coalition. In a
meeting on August 3, KOZ Vice President Eugen Skultety
explained that 80 percent of their agenda had made it into
the government program statement. The ruling coalition has
promised to revive tripartite talks during labor
negotiations, which the previous government had abolished.


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5. (U) Skultety named revision of the Labor Code as KOZ's
first priority. They want the law to improve protection of
workers, including: prevention of misusing self-employed
contractor status to avoid paying benefits for what are
essentially regular employees, prevention of re-using a
probationary period (which has fewer benefits) for successive
short-term contracts for the same employee, and increasing
benefits for part-time workers.


6. (SBU) KOZ supports the controversial EU Directive for a
maximum 48 hour work week for individuals. Up till now, the
GOS has not supported this directive but a British diplomat
fears that may change. The UK Minister of Labor may visit
Slovakia in the next couple of months to discuss the issue.


7. (SBU) In a meeting with the DCM, the new state secretary
at the Ministry of Labor Emilia Krsikova discussed the Labor
Code. She made it clear that the Ministry wants to enact
significant amendments. Although she did not provide
details, Krsikova emphasized that she wanted to strengthen
the position of labor unions and contract workers in
accordance with the European Social Charter and EU
conventions. She defended her government's desire to amend
labor laws by saying that Slovakia would not legislate
anything that had not already been done in several European
countries. We told Krsikova that being different from
western Europe was exactly what had won Slovakia badly-needed
foreign investment. To make Slovakia like western Europe on
labor law issues would diminish the country's attractiveness
to investors.


CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP AT POLICE HQ
--------------

8. (U) Minister of Interior Robert Kalinak recalled the
police president and two vice presidents in early August.
Jan Packa, currently the head of the Office for Protection of
Constitutional Officials, will become the new police
president, replacing Anton Kulich, who will become an advisor
to Kalinak. Michal Kopcik, from the Border and Alien Police
branch in Presov, will replace Jaroslav Spisiak as one police
vice president. In the other vice president slot, Stanislav
Jankovic, currently deputy director of the Bratislava
regional police, will replace Jan Nociar, who will become
head of personnel at the MOI.


9. (SBU) Former Interior Minister Vladimir Palko considers
Packa and Jankovic to be good choices, but says there was no
reason to replace the renowned mafia-buster Spisiak with a
replacement who is too young and inexperienced. Kalinak, on
the other hand, praised Kopcik for his strong results in
fighting illegal migration in eastern Slovakia. (COMMENT:
This could be an attempt to aid Slovakia's entry into the
Schengen treaty, which has already slipped by one year to

2008. END COMMENT.) For his part, Spisiak is satisfied that
none of the three new designees have ties to organized crime.


10. (SBU) According to a contact within the MOI, lower level
staff hold differing opinions from the politicians. Among
the rank-and-file, the new police vice presidents are well
respected whereas the new president is not.


MORMON CHURCH TO TEST 20,000 SUPPORTER LAW
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11. (SBU) While Slovakia generally respects freedom of
religion, it has one of the world's highest thresholds to
officially recognize a religious institution. The signatures
of 20,000 supporters are required to register with the
government, via the Ministry of Culture. However, the actual
language used in the law is ambiguous. It could be
interpreted as "members" or "supporters". (Note: the closest
literal translation is roughly "20,000 people who declare
themselves".) According to an American lawyer representing
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons
have obtained a binding interpretation of the law from the
Ministry of Culture which says the 20,000 signatures can be
from people who support the registration of the LDS church,
i.e., they need not be members or adherents to the faith.
While Mormons number approximately 500 in Slovakia, they have
started an organized campaign to get the necessary 20,000
signatures. At the moment, they've gathered about 1000 -
anecdotally mostly from Catholics. The Mormons intend to
increase their signature-gathering efforts in September.


12. (SBU) The lawyer for the LDS Church claimed the Ministry
of Culture has promised to perform the administrative
processing to register the Church if the necessary signatures
are obtained. The fact that the Church would refuse

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financial support from the GOS even if registered may help
their cause. However, the lawyer worried that SNS, which has
a state secretary (deputy minister) at the Ministry of
Culture, may try to obstruct the registration. Informal LDS
Church branches are located in Bratislava, Trencin, and
Zilina, which is SNS Chairman Jan Slota's stronghold. The
lawyer explained that LDS members in Zilina feel persecuted
by municipal authorities, but was unable to provide recent
concrete examples of harassment.

VALLEE