History, Independence and Instability

Under Meciar’s leadership, the process of privatization slowed in Slovakia. In February 1993 Michal Kovac was elected president of the country. Although a fellow member of the HZDS party, Kovac was not a Meciar ally, and conflicts soon developed within the government. Meciar’s position was further undermined by the resignation and defection of a number of party deputies in early 1994. In March of that year, Meciar resigned from office after receiving a vote of no confidence from the Slovak parliament. An interim coalition government comprising representatives from a broad range of parties was sworn in, with Jozef Moravcik of the Democratic Union of Slovakia Party as prime minister. Moravcik’s government revived the privatization process and took steps to attract more foreign investment to Slovakia. It also helped to calm the increasingly strained relations between Slovaks and resident Hungarians, who had begun campaigning for educational and cultural autonomy. In May a law was passed by parliament allowing ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia to register their names in their original form; this replaced previous legislation requiring Hungarians to convert their names to the Slavic form.

In elections held in the fall of 1994, the HZDS Party, led once again by Meciar, received 35 percent of the popular vote and announced its plans to form a government with the support of the ultranationalist Slovak National Party. Although the two parties did not control enough parliamentary seats to command a majority, this situation was resolved in November when the left-wing Association of Slovak Workers joined Meciar’s coalition. The new government took office in December, and Meciar became prime minister for a third time. In an effort to reverse Moravcik’s liberalization policies, the Meciar government returned radio and television communications to state control and blocked the privatization of state-owned companies. These and other measures aimed at centralizing power in Meciar’s hands were met with concern by a number of Western governments.

In the months that followed, tensions mounted between Meciar’s government and President Kovac. In May 1995 the Slovak National Council passed a vote of no confidence in Kovac over his alleged failure to control the activities of the Slovak Information Service, the intelligence agency that had been transferred from Kovac’s authority to that of the government the previous month. The vote, which had no legal consequence, was declared unconstitutional by Kovac. Prime Minister Meciar backed the resignation demand. In June Kovac was stripped of his role as head of the armed forces.

Since becoming independent, one of the priorities of Slovak foreign policy has been to maintain good relations with the Czech Republic and other central European nations. However, Slovakia’s relations with Hungary have been strained by the status of Slovakia’s large Hungarian population, and by fear among Slovaks of Hungarian expansionism. In March 1995 the two governments took an important step toward peaceful relations when the prime ministers of both countries signed an historic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation; the treaty reaffirmed the Slovak-Hungarian border, and contained pledges on the part of both governments to protect and foster the rights of ethnic minorities residing in their countries.

Slovakia and Hungary have also been involved in a dispute over the Gabcikovo dam, located on the Danube on the Slovak-Hungarian border. The dam was initially part of a joint hydroelectric project between Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The project called for the diversion of the Danube and the construction of two major dams, one in each country. However, in 1989 Hungary withdrew from the project, citing environmental concerns. Czechoslovakia proceeded with the construction of the Gabcikovo dam and completed it in 1992. Hungary continued to object to the project, claiming that by diverting the flow of the river, the Czechoslovak government had unilaterally altered the border between the two countries. Slovakia inherited the dispute when it became an independent country in 1993. That year, the European Union demanded that the two governments forward the issue to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, for arbitration. In September 1997 the court ruled that both Hungary and Slovakia had violated the hydroelectric project agreement. Hungary had breached the international contract by withdrawing from the project, while Czechoslovakia had not been entitled to alter the course of the Danube for the Gabcikovo dam without Hungary’s consent. The countries were ordered to compensate one another and negotiate the future of the dam project. A resolution had not been reached as of June 1998.

In March 1998 President Kovac’s term ended and none of the candidates to succeed him were able to gain the necessary majority in parliament. With the president’s office vacant, many presidential powers reverted to Meciar. In parliamentary elections held in September, Meciar’s HZDS party won the most votes with 27 percent. However, opposition parties formed a coalition that took 93 of the 150 seats in parliament. Meciar resigned as head of HZDS and gave up his parliamentary seat. Mikulas Dzurinda, the leader of the coalition, replaced Meciar as prime minister. In May 1999 Slovakia held its first direct presidential elections. Rudolf Schuster, a candidate backed by the government coalition, defeated Meciar in a runoff election, taking 57 percent of the vote.