RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  19 January 2000

KOVER ONLY CANDIDATE LEFT FOR FIDESZ CHAIRMANSHIP. Janos
Ader, parliamentary speaker and Federation of Young
Democrats-Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESZ) deputy chairman, and
Jozsef Szajer, FIDESZ parliamentary group leader, on 18
January said they support Secret Services Minister Laszlo
Kover's candidacy for the post of FIDESZ chairman. The three
potential candidates agreed to convene the party's steering
board before the 29 January congress to establish whom it
will nominate for the post. Kover said Szajer made it clear
that he wants to continue leading the parliamentary group
while Ader decided to stay as parliament speaker. MSZ

HUNGARIAN EDUCATION MINISTER CALLS FOR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
DAY. Zoltan Pokorni on 18 January proposed that Hungarian
high schools commemorate the Holocaust each year "to keep
alive the moral responsibility of each individual." Pokorni
was speaking at a ceremony commemorating the 55th anniversary
of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto. In other news,
Hungarian neo-Nazis plan to repeat a commemorative meeting
held one year ago in Budapest, which led to clashes with
police. On a German-language web site, the skinheads are
urging their comrades in Germany to join the annual meeting
commemorating SS troops who fell in the Buda Castle fighting
the Soviets. MSZ

HUNGARIAN PARTY IN ROMANIA TORN BY CONFLICT... Laszlo Toekes,
honorary chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of
Romania (UDMR), has refused to accept a distinction from UDMR
chairman Bela Marko at festivities marking the 10th
anniversary of the UDMR establishment, Hungarian radio
reported on 17 January. Toekes said last November that under
Marko's leadership the UDMR has been turned into "a
communist-like totalitarian organization" dominated by
"intolerance." The Hungarian-language daily "Nepujsag,"
published in Targu Mures, cites Tokes as telling a
congregation recently that "heroes are being decorated
together with traitors." Former dissident Karoly Kiraly has
refused to attend the ceremony, accusing the UDMR leadership
of having dropped the demand of Romania's Hungarian minority
for self-determination. Hungarian Deputy Premier Laszlo
Kover, who attended the festivities, told the audience that
"disputes must never deteriorate to the level of endangering
UDMR's unity." MS

...AND DISPUTE OVER 'MULTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY' RE-EMERGES IN
ROMANIA. Education Minister Andrei Marga on 17 January said
that following consultations with OSCE High Commissioner on
National Minorities Max van der Stoel, it has been agreed
that the best solution for promoting a "multicultural
university" in Romania is to "consolidate the existing
structures of the Babes-Bolyai university" in Cluj, Mediafax
reported. He said students should be able to take "full
degrees" in either Romanian, Hungarian, or German languages
at the university. Marga is the rector on leave of Babes-
Bolyai. Marko said in reaction that the UDMR continues to
demand the setting up of a Hungarian-language state
university. He added that the UDMR supports the idea of full-
fledged degrees in Hungarian at Babes-Bolyai, but that this
requires replacing the present "language groups" with
Hungarian-language faculties and departments. MS

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