Slovak Opposition Questions Mečiar's Sanity

BRATISLAVA (Reuter) - Slovakia's largest opposition party said it will ask parliament to order an examination of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's mental health. "We have proposed that parliament order an examination to determine the mental ability of Vladimír Mečiar to perform his duties as prime minister," Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) deputy Jozef Miklušičák told Reuters. He said the move had resulted from Mečiar's remarks at a regular Thursday rally of supporters of his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) in Bratislava that the KDH had planned to murder him. Mečiar told the rally that KDH Deputy Chairman Vladimír Palko had proposed his assasination at a KDH leadership meeting last January, but that the plan had been rejected only because KDH leader Jan Čarnogurský was against it. Palko said that this was further evidence of Mečiar's mental instability and inability to perform as a prime minister. "Normally, after these (Mečiar's) words either I would have to be in jail or he would have to be committed to a mental home," Palko told the independent radio Twist. "We know that our proposal will be rejected (by the ruling coalition majority in parliament). We only want to establish what we think of Mečiar's mental status," Miklušičák said. It was not immediately know when the motion would be placed on parliament's agenda.