The Slovak National Council approved the Slovak Constitution on 1 September 1992 by the necessary three-fifths majority (114 of 150).Note 1 It was signed by Slovak Parliament chairman Ivan Gasparovic and Prime Minister Meciar on 3 September. By its introductory words ("We, the Slovak nation....") the nine chapter, 155-article Slovak Constitution stresses national rather than civil aspects of citizenshipNote 2 and outlines the Slovak government. The unicameral National Council has 150 delegates elected for four-year terms (see Table 12 below). The president, elected by three-fifths of the deputies, serves for a five-year term and is the national command authority. The government--prime minister, deputies, and ministers--is appointed and recalled by the president, who also appoints judges to the Constitutional Court for a seven-year term.Note 3
Table 12 - Slovak Defense Reform, 1993
In contrast to the Czech Republic which elected Vaclav Havel on the first ballot, it took the Slovaks weeks to cast a number of ballots. (Alexander Dubcek, the leading presidential candidate had been fatally injured in an automobile accident.) Finally, on 15 February, 106 deputies elected Michal Kovac, one of the Movement for Democratic Slovakia's (HZDS) co-founders, Slovakia's first president; he was inaugurated on 2 March 1993.Note 4
On 16 December 1992 the Slovak National Council approved the creation of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, with about 43,000 troops, and a new defense ministry. The Slovak Constitution binds the armed forces to maintain all treaties and agreements made by the Czechoslovak Federal Republic (CSFR). All Slovaks (including those previously serving in the Czechoslovak Army) had to swear allegiance of loyalty to Slovakia by 31 January 1993, to be allowed to serve in the new Slovak Army.
Almost immediately, disputes within the governing Movement for a Democratic Slovakia erupted and dominated constitutional politics. In January a personal dispute arose between two of the movement's founders--Prime Minister Meciar and Foreign Minister Milan Knazko--when Meciar accused Knazko of persuading deputies not to vote for Meciar's candidate in the fractious presidential election. As tension between the two escalated, on 7 February Meciar asked Knazko to resign (as foreign minister), but President Kovac expressed reluctance to oust Knazko. Since the 1993 Constitution says a cabinet member can only be removed by the president (at the request of the prime minister or if the parliament withdraws its confidence) Kovac announced on 10 March that he would turn to the Constitutional Court to determine if he was obliged to fire Knazko. When Meciar threatened to resign unless Knazko was removed, Kovac without waiting for a Court ruling removed Knazko and Jozef Moravcik became the new foreign minister on 19 March 1993.
Ironically, on 2 June 1993 the Constitutional Court ruled that according to Article 116.4 of the Constitution, the president has no duty to accept a prime ministerial motion of dismissal of a minister. Though Kovac had already fired Knazko, the decision did serve as a final interpretation of the vague constitutional article.
Knazko, stealing away 7 of the HZDS's 74 members in the 150-seat Council, then formed a parliamentary caucus of his own; a new Alliance of Slovak Democrats (ADS). Then on 19 March, Ludovit Cernak, Chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNP), allegedly in protest over Imrich Andrejcak's appointment as defense minister, also bolted the HZDS coalition. As a result, Meciar was now in minority with 66 seats. Through June he attempted to create a new alliance with the SNP (which would bring his total to 81 seats), but the discussions broke down. The failure of coalition talks threatened early elections.
On 19 October 1993 Meciar finally formed a coalition with Ludovit Cernak, leader of the SNP; the HZDS-SNP coalition held 80 of the 150 parliament seats. After two weeks of negotiation, Meciar submitted a list of seven ministers to Michal Kovac on 5 November. President Kovac accepted the nomination of only six, refusing the name of Ivan Lexa as privatization minister. Meciar withdrew the list of seven, then on 9 November re-submitted a list of only six.
Military. The challenge of constructing a new defense ministry in Bratislava, the army command in Trencin, and a new army was daunting. On 16 March 1993, President Kovac appointed Imrich Andrejcak, former CSFR defense minister, as Slovakia's new defense minister. At the end of May, the government approved a bill that created a National Security Council to replace the State Defense Council.Note 5
The Army's most urgent task was to create an Army of the Slovak Republic. This meant redeploying troops which in turn required the construction of apartments for officers and families, transforming the military educational system, preparing a military doctrine, and building an army compatible with Western-style military systems.
On 1 March 1994 the Slovak government approved two key documents: The first--"Principles of Slovakia's National Security" confirmed parliament's civil control of the military by establishing the republic's national defense system; the second--Slovak Republic's Defense Doctrine--committed Slovakia to international agreements limiting forces and arms, emphasized maintaining good neighbor relations, and expressed interest in joining NATO and the WEU.Note 6
Ethnic issues. Disputes with its Hungarian minority had a negative impact on Slovakia's international image. In June 1992 Hungarian deputies to the Slovak National Council boycotted the vote on the new constitution because they felt it failed to protect the rights of ethnic minorities; and in December they cited numerous violations of Hungarian rights in Slovakia which strained relations with neighboring Hungary. By April 1993 Meciar, wanting to enter the Council of Europe, indicated his willingness to amend the constitution if necessary and set up an independent watchdog commission on human rights. Slovakia and Hungary also agreed on 7 April 1993 to refer the problem of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Dam on the Danube to the International Court of Justice in the Hague for arbitration.
The ethnic issue continued to fester. Hungarians continued to lodge accusations of minority discrimination when the transportation minister removed Hungarian language road signs. Claiming that their pleas for dialogue had been ignored, on January 8, 1994 about 4,000 local mayors and politicians gathered in Komorno and decided to declare a self-governing province in the region of significant Hungarian ethnic minority.Note 7
Continuing political instability. Despite the tentative 19 October coalition agreement, the last months of 1993 and early 1994 were characterized by further turmoil. Finally, after a vote of no-confidence in March 1994, Vladimir Meciar's government was ousted, and a new government was formed.
Tension in the coalition escalated in December when Meciar delivered a highly controversial speech behind closed doors to HZDS party followers. He called for early elections (in June 1994) and criticized SNP coalition partners. When the speech leaked to the press it caused domestic political turmoil.
Also months of political wrangling led to the creation of a faction--the Alternative of Political Realism (APR)--within the HZDS. Backed by then Deputy Prime Minister Roman Kovac and Foreign Minister Jozef Moravcik plus nine other deputies, the APR's goal was to form a government coalition without Meciar. These efforts resulted in the March 1994 dismissal of Roman Kovac and Moravcik from the HZDS and their resignation from the cabinet.
As a result Meciar now led a minority government and he began to push for elections in June. Though the Parliament rejected the idea as impractical, Meciar then began to collect 350,000 signatures (under Article 95 of the Constitution) to call a referendum for early elections and to dismiss those deputies who had switched party affiliation after the last election.
President Michal Kovac decided that he could not call a referendum on dismissing deputies who had changed their party affiliation and in a 9 March speech to Parliament Kovac criticized Meciar and his government as inefficient and incompetent. After two days of stormy debate, Parliament toppled the prime minister in a vote of no-confidence on 11 March 1994.Note 8 On 16 March Kovac announced that Meciar's petition for early election, submitted 2 March, was invalid. In a unanimous vote, all deputies (including Meciar) voted to hold elections on 30 September and 1 October 1994.
On 16 March 1994 President Kovac named Jozef Moravcik as prime minister who called for restoring public confidence in the new state; and Pavol Kanis (of the Party of the Democratic Left) became the first civilian defense minister (with MG Andrej Sabol as defense state secretary later in March). By spring 1994 one major issue was to eliminate tensions between the defense ministry in Bratislava and the Army Command in Trencin which had resulted, in part, because the Army Command had been established first. It was also necessary to clarify the differing political and military responsibilities between the defense ministry and Army Command.Note 9
The new Moravcik government initiated significant change in Slovakia's defense and security policy. The draft Slovak Defense Doctrine, which had been approved in March 1994, was reworked on the basis of discussions with the Parliamentary committee and approved by the National Council on 30 June 1994.Note 10 Defense Minister Kanis noted that the new revised Slovak Defense Doctrine placed greater emphasis on developing closer relations with European and transatlantic security structures; it stressed the WEU's Associated Partnership programNote 11 and clearly stated that the fundamental orientation of Slovakia was to obtain full NATO membership. Participation in NATO's NACC and Partnership For Peace (Slovakia signed its Presentation Document on 25 May 1994) was the means to achieve this objective.Note 12 Former Defense Minister Imrich Andrejcak criticized Kanis' changes to Slovakia's PFP Presentation Document as being too expensive, arguing that the defense ministry would now have to spend 4.5 percent of its budget rather than the one percent originally envisaged.Note 13
Another change was the recognition that the creation of a separate Army Command from the CSFR Command East facilities was not a workable solution. In early June Slovak Army Commander General Julius Humaj announced that the command was to be transformed into a General Staff along the lines of Western European Armies.Note 14 Then Defense Minister Kanis announced that the defense ministry and the Army High Command (to be renamed the General Staff) would be restructured and significantly reduced in size to prevent overlap and inefficiency.Note 10
On 26 August the Slovak National Council approved amendments to the Law on the Army to create a General Staff, whose chief is subordinate to the defense minister, but appointed (and recalled) by the president at the defense minister's recommendation. On 1 September, ColGen Jozef Tuchyna, adviser to the defense minister and former interior minister, became the new Chief of General Staff, and General Humaj became his deputy. Note 16
Building a new Army would be very expensive. During 1994 Slovakia (like Hungary, but in marked contrast to the Czech Republic) had acquired 6 addition Russian MiG-29s (worth $180 million) as part of the Russian debt to Slovakia. In a 26 October press conference Chief of Staff Jozef Tuchyna argued that the Slovak Army would need over 19 billion Slovak crowns ($600 million) in 1995 (more than twice its budget of 9.9 billion crowns in 1994) to cover shortfalls over the previous two years. He noted that he had signed the order to establish Army Corps (to replace existing divisions as of 1 November 1994) and to transform the regiments into brigades during 1995Note 17 and that the command of Military Intelligence had been transferred to the General Staff.Note 18 Defense Minister Pavol Kanis added that it would also be necessary to develop a modern system of management and command within the headquarters and Slovak Army during 1995.
The new Moravcik-coalition government also attempted to moderate outstanding ethnic tensions. In Parliament, they passed one bill on women's surnames (Hungarian women would not have to add the Slovak suffix "ova" to their last name) in May; and another that requires bilingual road signs in towns where at least 20 percent of the residents are ethnic minority in July.
Preparation for the new elections also required changes in the electoral law to prevent debilitating fragmentation (at the time 64 political parties). The electoral law set a 5 percent threshold for political parties; 7 percent for coalitions of two or three parties; and 10 percent for coalitions of four or more parties.
When the elections were held on 30 September-1 October 1994 seven parties returned to Parliament. Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) in coalition with the Slovak Farmers' Party gained the largest number of votes with 34.96 percent (61 seats); second was the Common Choice coalition (composed of four left-wing parties) with 10.41 percent (18 seats); third was the Hungarian coalition with 10.18 percent (17 seats); fourth, the Christian Democrats with 10.08 percent (17 seats); fifth, Moravcik's Democratic Union with 8.57 (15 seats); Association of Workers with 7.34 (13 seats); and Slovak National Party with 5.4 percent (9 seats)Note 20.
Before the election, the Moravcik-coalition government with Hungarian parties had 85 seats in Parliament; and after it would only have 68. Therefore President Michal Kovac, who had not met with Meciar since February, asked Meciar (whose HZDS had 61 seats) to try to form a government on 27 October.Note 21 When Prime Minister Moravcik submitted his resignation to President Kovac on 3 November, Kovac asked him to carry on until a new government could be formed. But forming a government would prove to be more difficult and time consuming that originally imagined; prime minister-designate Meciar stated that he would announce a new cabinet only after the Parliament debated the new budget on 12-13 December.
Meciar's return. On 11 December Meciar signed a coalition agreement with the extreme-right Slovak National Party (SNP) and the left-wing Association of Slovak Workers (ASW). The Slovak Agrarian Party, an HZDS-satellite, also joined the coalition. Together the four parties would hold 83 seats of the 150-seat Parliament.Note 22 When Meciar announced the new government on 13 December, it included Jan Sitek (SNP) as defense minister (see Table 13 below).
Table 13 - Slovak Defense Reform, 1994
As 1995 opened, the old feud between Meciar and President Kovac erupted again. Meciar opened his offensive by slashing the president's budget by 50 percent,Note 23 criticizing the Constitution as being unclear in its division of powers, and claiming that the Parliament and people lacked proper supervision over the president. Therefore Meciar indicated that he would like either the government's powers to be increased or the adoption of a presidential model whereby the citizens would directly elect the president. Michael Kovacs, on the other hand, was opposed to changing the Constitution.
It appears that Meciar is embarking Slovakia on a path fraught with dangers. Whether Slovakia will end in a dilemma similar to the current Polish problems is unclear. One indication of potential concern emerged from Defense Minister Sitek, who noted shortly after taking office that he had plans to create a Slovak militia, which would be staffed by former Army members, and subordinate to the chief of staff. Sitek, noted that: "It will be employed for the protection of objects and in case of mobilization."Note 24
In summary, Slovakia's reform has been hampered by political instability which resulted in three governments in two years. Its defense reform differs from the other Central European states in that Slovakia had to create defense institutions from the beginning. The Moravcik coalition-government initiated significant defense and military reforms, but it remains to be seen whether they will continue under the new Meciar-coalition government.
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