RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 92, 15 May 1998

FIDESZ LEADER SEEKS TO REASSURE BOURSE. Federation of Young
Democrats-Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESZ-MPP) leader Viktor
Orban on 14 May visited the Budapest stock exchange in an
attempt to reassure investors that if his party wins the
elections, the economy will not suffer, Reuters and
Hungarian media reported. Stock exchange prices sharply
dropped after the 10 May electoral runoff (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 14 May 1998). Orban said that the FIDESZ-MPP's
economic policies mean stronger growth and a boost for small
and medium-sized enterprises but will not affect investors
in the financial sector. In another development, Christian
Democratic Party chairman Gyorgy Giczy has offered to resign
"if most county organizations wish so," assuming
responsibility for the poor performance of his party on 10
May. MS

WITHDRAWAL AGREEMENTS REACHED AHEAD OF HUNGARIAN RUNOFF. The
Socialist Party and their Free Democrats coalition partner
have concluded an agreement whereby their candidates will
withdraw from the 24 May runoff in favor of the best placed
candidates, Hungarian media reported on 14 May. Fifteen Free
Democrats are stepping down in favor of Socialist
candidates, while two Socialists are to do same for the
benefit of the Free Democrats. Meanwhile, the opposition
Democratic Forum has withdrawn its regional lists in favor
of FIDESZ-MPP in Szaolcs-Szatmar and Hajdu Bihar, the two
counties where elections are to be repeated owing to an
insufficient turnout on 10 May. The Christian Democrats
pulled out of the single-member constituency runoff in
Nyireseg in favor of the Smallholders but will retain its
county list. Finally, the People's Party has withdrawn all
its candidates in single-member constituencies in favor of
FIDESZ-MPP. MS

GOVERNMENT CRITICIZES FUNAR OVER MEMORIAL PLAQUE. The
government on 14 May said a recent initiative of the extreme
nationalist mayor of Cluj Gheorghe Funar was part and parcel
of the "chauvinist and anti-Semitic phenomena" harming
Romania's image abroad. Funar has had a memorial plaque hung
on a building in Cluj that claims the Hungarian national
poet Sandor Petofi was a Serb born as Alexander Petrovic and
later forced to "Magyarize" his name. MS

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