13/10/2006- Robert Fico, Slovakia's new premier, suffered a humiliating rebuff on Thursday when the Party of European Socialists (PES) suspended his Smer party's membership over its coalition with the xenophobic Slovak Nationalists. The decision of the pan-European Socialist group means that Smer will be shut out of meetings with fellow Socialists ahead of votes in the Council of Ministers and European Parliament. The move signals the international distrust of Slovakia's ruling party and could weaken the country's influence. Smer's ostracism crowns a terrible three months in foreign relations for the new government, which was always going to be unpopular for including the two nationalist parties which led Slovakia into international isolation in the mid 1990s. Over the summer, relations with neighbouring Hungary become embittered by Mr Fico's handling of anti-Hungarian incidents, which Budapest blames on the presence of the Slovak Nationalists in his government. Budapest is angry at what it regards as Slovakia's slowness in condemning the attacks on ethnic Hungarians, while Bratislava accuses Hungary of using the incidents to try to discredit Slovakia. This week Ferenz Gyurcsany, the Hungarian premier, cancelled a scheduled meeting with Mr Fico because of the dispute. The incidents have also been raised at the European Parliament and by the Council of Europe, the pan-European human rights body. Meeting in Brussels on Thursday, the PES's presidency voted by an overwhelming majority to suspend Smer for violating the group's rule not to form alliances with parties that encourage racial hatred. The suspension will be reviewed in June 2007.
Jan Slota, leader of the Slovak Nationalists, has frequently abused Hungarians and gypsies in public speeches and interviews. He once threatened to "jump in a tank and flatten Budapest" to stop Hungary trying to reoccupy Slovakia, a country it ruled until 1918. This week Mr Slota publicly renounced xenophobia but this failed to persuade the PES that he had fundamentally changed his stance. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, PES president said: "The PES does not believe that its member parties can enter government at any price. Slovakia needs social democracy, but not at the cost of compromising with extreme nationalism and xenophobia." In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Jan Kubis, the non-party foreign minister, insisted that suspension would not affect Slovakia's bilateral relations and that Smer's critics were behaving dogmatically. "A government dominated by Social Democrats should not be afraid to make coalitions with nationalist parties provided it can dominate the acts of the government and can moderate the policy of that party," Mr Kubis said. Mikulas Dzurinda, the former rightwing premier, argues that Slovakia's international reputation has been damaged by the new government, particularly by its handling of the dispute with Hungary. "Fico was absolutely unprepared and he failed," Mr Dzurinda told the Financial Times this week. "When he should have been quiet he was talking and when he should have reacted he was quiet."
© The Financial Times http://news.ft.com/home/europe