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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 29, 12 February 1998

CZECH PARLIAMENT DEBATES NATO MEMBERSHIP. Opening the debate in the Chamber
of Deputies on a bill to ratify Czech membership in NATO, Prime Minister
Josef Tosovsky and Defense Minister Michal Lobkowicz both stressed the
historic significance of joining the alliance, CTK and AFP reported. Milos
Zeman, the leader of the  main opposition Social Democratic Party, said he
"unequivocally" supports NATO membership but argued that the  next
parliament, to be elected later this year, must pass a bill providing for a
referendum on entry to the alliance. Zeman said he is sure that such a
referendum would show large support for adherence, as was the case in
Hungary. He added that " I do not think the Czech nation is less
intelligent than the Hungarian nation." The debate is expected to last
several weeks. MS

HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES AGREE ON ELECTORAL ALLIANCE. Independent
Smallholders and Christian Democratic candidates will support one another
in the second round of the May general elections, party chairmen Jozsef
Torgyan and Gyorgy Giczy agreed on 11 February. Contrary to earlier plans,
the two parties will not field joint candidates, but the weaker of the two
parties' candidates will withdraw in favor of the other in the second
ballot. The two chairmen also agreed to form a government together if they
are successful in the elections. In other news, Hungary's media magnate
Janos Fenyo was shot dead in his car on a busy street in Budapest on 11
February. MSZ

ROMANIAN EXTREMISTS SIGN PROTOCOL ON ALLIANCE. Corneliu Vadim Tudor,
leader of Greater Romania Party (PRM), and Cluj mayor Gheorghe Funar, who
heads a dissenting wing of the Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR), on
11 February signed a protocol that they called the "first step on the road
to setting up the Great Alliance for the Resurrection of the Fatherland."
The protocol, which is open to the signatures of other formations,
envisages joint actions toward bringing about the dismissal of Victor
Ciorbea's government, setting up a "government of national unity,"
outlawing the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania, and "stopping the
pillaging of national assets and the national economy," RFE/RL's Bucharest
bureau reported. MS

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