RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  6 January 2000

HUNGARIAN COALITION PARTY STILL UNHAPPY WITH MEDICAL
PRACTICES BILL. The leadership of the Independent
Smallholders' Party has expressed reservations about a bill
on privatizing medical practices, which was approved by the
cabinet on 4 January. Party chairman Jozsef Torgyan told
Hungarian television that the coalition partners have not yet
reached an agreement on the bill. He said the Smallholders
will submit a series of amendments to the bill in parliament
next week. The parliament failed to pass the bill in December
after the Smallholders refused to take part in the vote (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 21 December 1999). Analysts say the
dispute over the bill is part of ongoing discussions between
the senior coalition partner FIDESZ and the Smallholders over
positions in state-owned companies. MSZ

NATO CLOSES BASE IN SOUTHERN HUNGARY. NATO closed its
military base in Pecs, which the alliance had used to supply
its peacekeeping troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungarian
media reported on 5 January. The closure is part of NATO's
efforts to streamline its operations in the Balkan country.
MSZ

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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE  7 January 2000

HUNGARIAN PREMIER REBUKES U.S.-BASED JOURNALISM FREEDOM WATCH
GROUP. The Hungarian Prime Minister's Office on 6 January
harshly criticized the U.S.-based Committee for the
Protection of Journalists for asking Prime Minister Viktor
Orban to launch an investigation into a hand-grenade attack
on the office building of the opposition weekly "Elet es
Irodalom," Hungarian media reported. The office said it is
"extremely regrettable" that the committee "ignores the basic
rules of the press" by relying on "apparently tendentious and
distorted information" which has been "denied by the body
most affected--the editorial staff of the weekly" (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 30 December 1999 and 4 January 2000). MS

HUNGARIAN MAVERICK POLITICIAN HAS IT HIS OWN WAY. Orban on 6
January accepted the resignation of Balazs Medgyesy as state
secretary of the Environment Ministry. The daily "Magyar
Hirlap" reported on 7 January that Medgyesy was forced to
resign as part of a bargain within the governing coalition.
Under the bargain, the Independent Smallholders' Party will
accept the appointment of a FIDESZ-backed candidate to head
the state-owned Babolna agricultural enterprise in exchange
for the dismissal of Medgyesy, which the Smallholders have
sought for some time. According to "Nepszabadsag," the
bargain was struck in talks between Orban and Smallholders
leader Jozsef Torgyan one day earlier. MS

HUNGARIAN JEWISH LEADER TO LOSE HIS POSITION? Peter Tordai,
chairman of the Federation of Jewish Religious Communities in
Hungary (MAZSIHISZ), is likely to be dismissed, "Napi
Magyarorszag" reported. A 1995 video recording features
Tordai and the manager of a security guard company forcibly
occupying two stores in Budapest, the paper reported on 4
January. Several MAZSIHISZ officials have said that Tordai's
business activities are irreconcilable with his position in
the organization. MS

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               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx