Mečiar: A New Political Body Will Emerge

BRATISLAVA (SITA) - "In the second half of January a new political body will emerge - the Party of Civil Understanding initiated from Kosice. It will be something like the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), a party somewhere in between," Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) Chair and Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar told his sympathizers at the Pasienky HZDS rally on Thursday. Along with 4000 movement followers also HZDS pillar figures Ivan Gašparovič, Augustín Marián Húska, Katarína Tóthová, Gustáv Krajči, Ivan Hudec, Jozef Zlocha and Pavol Kačic attended the show. At the beginning, Mečiar addressed the issue of upcoming elections. "The cabinet coalition is interested in having elected a president, but we do not want to repeat our mistake from 1993 by electing someone inappropriate," said Mečiar and added that "there is no need to rush, no mistake should happen." Media has disseminated some information on the alleged birth of a new political party - the Party of National Understanding led by Kosice Mayor Rudolf Schuster. However, Schuster told SITA, he has not established any political party and no one offered him a presidential candidacy yet. "It is not ruled out yet whether any political party is to emerge or not, and if yes, when would it happen. At this point, nothing like that is happening," he told SITA. Mečiar also commented on the opposition's effort to bring foreign observers to monitor parliamentary elections. "Let's them to come and see that everything is normal here. Neither the state administration, nor the HZDS will interfere into the democratic flow of the elections. We would go against ourselves," he stressed. He promised a rise of pensions and also wages, however, "1998 also embeds some risks. One of them is the function of the banks," he said. According to Mečiar, all the problems around Gabcikovo shall be solved by March.