RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  27 September 1999

COUNCIL OF EUROPE DROPS DEBATE ON 'EXTREMIST' PARTIES.
Hungarian Independent Smallholders' Party representative Geza
Pokol has expressed satisfaction that the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to drop a debate on
a report about extremist parties from its 24 September
meeting agenda, Hungarian Radio reported. An expert report
commissioned by the council had applied the term "extremist"
to the Smallholders' Party, which is a member of the
Hungarian government coalition (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23
September 1999). The assembly dropped the debate because the
term "extremist party" had not been defined in the report. VG

HUNGARIAN BY-ELECTIONS CONSIDERED INVALID. By-elections in
the central Hungarian towns of Szekesfehervar and Siofok on
26 September have both been declared invalid owing to low
turnout, according to an MTI report cited by the BBC. Both
towns will hold another round of voting in two weeks. In the
26 September vote, the Hungarian Socialist Party was leading
in both towns. VG

RUSSIANS HOPE TO BUILD MIG-29 REPAIR CENTER IN HUNGARY. A
delegation from Russia's MAPO, which manufactures MiG-29s,
was in Hungary last week for talks on the establishment of a
maintenance center in the country, according to a 24
September MTI report cited by the BBC. The delegation also
discussed the possibility of selling spare parts or even new
aircraft to Hungary in exchange for payment in forints or
agricultural products. VG

HUNGARIAN-ROMANIAN MEMORIAL PLANNED. Hungarian Justice
Minister Ibolya David said on 25 September that Bucharest has
agreed to create a memorial park in the western Romanian city
of Arad to mark Hungary and Romania's "historical
reconciliation," Hungarian media reported. The two countries
will split the cost of setting up the park, which will
include an obelisk honoring the executed generals of the
1848-1849 War of Independence. The Hungarian and Romanian
prime ministers are to lay the foundation stone for the
obelisk on 6 October. VG

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