US embassy cable - 04BRATISLAVA688

UNCLAS BRATISLAVA 000688 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, LO 
SUBJECT: Unreconstructed Communists 
 
 
1. Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
2.  (SBU)Poloffs met with Jozef Sevc (Phonetic: sheffts), 
the head of the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS), on 15 
July at their party headquarters.  After a 20 minute opening 
monologue, Sevc finally yielded the floor for questions.  He 
proudly admitted that the KSS is an unreconstructed 
Communist party that has limited appeal among the Slovak 
electorate.  He stated that his party attracts the elderly, 
poor, and disenfranchised.  Over 60 percent of KSS members 
are over the age of 65, but he proudly noted that in the 
past four years, the party had attracted 4,600 new members 
under the age of 45 and that the KSS had 1,000 "comrades" 
under the age of 25.  Sevc added that his party would focus 
on the younger generation in the next parliamentary 
elections scheduled to be held in fall 2006.  Sevc noted 
that the KSS was disappointed that it did not receive enough 
votes to be represented in the European Parliament. 
 
3.  Sevc was critical of U.S. visa policy toward Slovakia, 
questioning why so many Slovaks are turned down.  He noted 
that his daughter had traveled to the U.S. twice as a 
university student, but had been denied three times since 
graduation.  He noted that U.S. should soften its visa 
rules, but respects the current state of affairs in light of 
the threat of terrorism. 
 
4.  (SBU) Sevc was pleased that members of the U.S. Embassy 
had requested the meeting, noting that the USG rarely met 
with them.  His monologue was peppered with language used by 
the former regime, including remarks about U.S. hegemony and 
the bourgeoisie.  KSS members still address each other by 
the title of comrade.  Sevc is married to the daughter of 
Vasil Bilak, who wrote the letter to the Soviet Union asking 
for intervention in 1968.  Sevc spoke no English, so Comrade 
Blaha served as an interpreter.  Blaha is 25 years old, with 
two university degrees, his is an international secretary of 
the KSS. 
 
 
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