EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS SUSPEND SMER WHILE THE PARTY

UNCLAS BRATISLAVA 000838 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV LO SUBJECT: EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS SUSPEND SMER WHILE THE PARTY GROWS IN POPULARITY ON HOME TURF REF: BRATISLAVA 553 ¶1. (U) The Presidency of the Party of European Socialists (PES) suspended the membership of Prime Minister Robert Fico's Smer party on October 12 for entering into a coalition with the Slovak National Party (SNS),chaired by Jan Slota. PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said that the European socialist club "does not believe that its members can enter Government at any price." The PES Resolution notes that its members must "refrain from any form of political alliance (...) with any political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred." Only Smer and the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) voted against the suspension. The PES will re-evalutate Smer's membership in June 2007. ¶2. (SBU) PM Fico's spokeswoman -- in an overly defensive style that unfortunately has characterized the government's approach on this -- responded that Smer was punished because it makes policy for the people, fights with monopolies, and did not choose the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK) as a coalition partner. Privately, a contact within Smer tried to look for the silver lining, noting that PES did not close the door completely and would continue to have contact with Smer until the re-evaluation. Boris Zala, a foreign policy expert within the party and Chairman of the Slovak parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, and Juraj Horvath, the party's international secretary and a first time MP, represented Smer at the PES meeting in Brussels. We will get a further readout from Zala soon. ¶3. (SBU) On the day of the PES Presidency vote, Hungarian MEP and member of the PES Presidency Alexandra Dobolyi remarked to the media, "We want SNS to get rid of its leader over the next ten months. Slota is a problem." However, the PES has not officially stated that removal of Slota from SNS would result in Smer's reinstatement (and Smer would never agree to such a price, anyway). In a futile effort to avoid the suspension, which PES had threatened within days of Smer forming the current governing coalition (reftel) in July, Smer had convinced Slota to announce publicly on October 10 that he and SNS reject nationalism and xenophobia. Slota is well-known for his public anti-Hungarian and anti-Roma statements over the past decade. ¶4. (U) The suspension comes at a time when Smer is enjoying growing popularity within Slovakia. Opinion polls show that 36.2 percent of Slovaks would vote for Smer if elections were held now and that 40.7 percent of Slovaks rate the first 100 days of the governing coalition's administration as successful or very successful. In contrast, Smer won 29 percent of the electoral vote in June. VALLEE