RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol 1, No. 168, 26 November 1997

HUNGARIAN SOCIALIST DEPUTY URGED TO RESIGN. A screening panel
has urged Socialist parliamentary deputy Matyas Szuros to resign
after it found he had access to secret service data during the
communist era, Hungarian media reported on 26 November. The
judges' ruling says that as a member of the Secretariat of the
Socialist Workers Party's Central Committee, parliamentary speaker,
and acting Hungarian president in 1989, Szuros received reports on
internal security. According to the screening law, if he refuses to
resign within 30 days, details of his past will be made public. In his
capacity as then speaker of the parliament, Szuros had proclaimed
the Republic of Hungary on 23 October 1989. MSZ

HUNGARIAN PREMIER ON SITUATION OF ROMA. Addressing a
conference on the situation of Hungary's Romani population, Gyula
Horn said the country is "still far from seeing the position of Roma
change substantially," Hungarian media reported on 26 November.
Horn said it is unacceptable that social benefits should be the sole
source of income for a family, and he called on Gypsies to exclude
from their ranks those who want to live by crime. Labor Minister
Peter Kiss asserted that affirmative action is needed to provide jobs
for Roma. Similarly, Florian Farkas, the chairman of the National
Romani Government, said the inequality between the majority
population and the Romani minority can be done away with only if
additional funds are allocated for Roma. MSZ


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