___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 52, 17 March 1998

NO PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION FOR HUNGARIAN MINORITIES. Lawmakers on 16
March voted against  a bill guaranteeing 13 seats in the parliament for
minority representatives this year, Hungarian media reported. The bill,
which provided for minority elections in October, would have required a
two-thirds majority to pass but was supported by only 215 votes in the
386-seat parliament. Most votes in favor came from the Socialist Party,
while the majority of deputies from the junior coalition Free Democrats,
the Young Democrats, and the Democratic Forum abstained, saying that they
preferred the elections for minority seats to be separately held in May.
Ethnic minorities can run in the May elections on regular party lists but
their guaranteed seats will be ensured only in the 2002 parliamentary
elections, provided that the new  legislature passes the required
constitutional amendments. MSZ

BOMB EXPLODES OUTSIDE OPPOSITION POLITICIAN'S HOME. A bomb exploded on 16
March outside the home of Jozsef Torgyan, the chairman of the opposition
Independent Smallholders' Party, Hungarian media reported. There were no
injuries. Torgyan, who was at home when the blast occurred, said he was the
target of a politically motivated attempt, as was his party's headquarters,
when a bomb exploded there last week. MSZ

ROMANIAN RULING PARTY TO SUE NEW POLITICAL FORMATION. The National Peasant
Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) will contest in court the right of the
newly founded Romanian National Party (PNR) to its name, RFE/RL's Bucharest
Bureau reported on 16 March. Chairman Ion Diaconescu and deputy chairman
Ion Ratiu told journalists in Bucharest on 16 April that the new formation
has usurped the name of the party set up in Transylvania in the 19th
century to represent the interests of the Romanian majority under the
Austrian-Hungarian empire and that the PNR's name is "part of the PNTCD
legacy". The  National Peasant Party was set up in 1926 through the merger
of the PNR and the Peasant Party. Ratiu said it is an "insult" that "former
Communists" headed by Virgil Magureanu, the former director of the Romanian
Intelligence Service, are using the PNR's name. MS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               Copyright (c) 1998 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx