US embassy cable - 05BRATISLAVA950

C O N F I D E N T I A L  BRATISLAVA 000950 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2025 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, ECON, LO 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S CONVERSATION WITH PM DZURINDA 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador R.M. Vallee for reasons 1.4 b and d. 
 
1. (U) The Ambassador and his wife hosted Prime Minister and 
Mrs. Mikulas Dzurinda for a private dinner November 22.  They 
agreed that relations between Slovakia and the United States 
had never been better.  Following are informal notes from the 
conversation. 
 
Dzurinda on President Bush, and Possible White House Visit 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
2. (C) The Prime Minister believes he and President Bush have 
an especially warm and personal relationship.   Dzurinda was 
pleased that the President twice singled him out at 
multilateral meetings, once at a table where he talked with 
Dzurinda to the exclusion of jealous colleagues, and once in 
the White House where he kept Dzurinda after others had left 
to give him a pair of cufflinks and to chat.  It is obvious 
that the President's visit to Slovakia added to this 
perception, and Dzurinda highly values a potential visit to 
the White House in the spring. 
 
Politics: "I'm a Marathoner" 
-------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) The Ambassador and Dzurinda discussed the September 
2006 parliamentary elections.  The PM said the feel of the 
street (he has visited 82 villages in the last 9 months) 
contradicts the polls (which show SDKU as low as six 
percent), although he is concerned that the natural pendulum 
of politics, voter fatigue, and the need for a new face works 
against him.  He feels that, despite periodic intracoalition 
disputes, there is a natural alliance between his own Slovak 
Christian Democrat Union (SDKU), the Christian Democrat 
Movement (KDH), and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition 
(SMK).  His continued good private relations with these 
partners makes it unlikely they would abandon him for an 
alliance with Robert Fico's Smer ("Direction.")  (Comment: We 
would not rule out KDH or SMK alliances with Smer.  In the 
November 26 regional elections, Smer-KDH coalitions were 
particularly successful.  End comment.)  Dzurinda admitted a 
certain personal tiredness, but said that when he considers a 
Smer-HZDS-SNS-KSS possible coalition he gets reinvigorated 
("remember I'm a marathoner") to ensure continuity of his 
reforms. 
 
4. (C) According to the Prime Minister, Eddy (Foreign 
Minister Eduard Kukan) is a great resource, Finance Minister 
Ivan Miklos is the "brain" of the SDKU operation, and the PM 
is the political "nose."  He has been surprised and very 
pleased by the performance so far of new Minister of Labor 
and Social Affairs Iveta Radicova.  She came from the NGO 
world and did not have political experience, so it was a 
gamble by SDKU to name her to the position.  He has reached 
out to HZDS--particularly center-right members like Tibor 
Mikus (head of the parliamentary committee on European 
affairs)--and thinks he could work with the party.  He 
conceded that HZDS needed Vladimir Meciar to generate any 
enthusiasm among its electorate before the election.  Post 
election, Dzurinda envisioned HZDS ministers, but did not see 
a government role for Meciar, even as Speaker of Parliament. 
He characterized Meciar as old, tired, and a spent force, who 
would be satisified, in the PM's view, with party 
chairmanship in a coalition partner party. 
 
Airport Privatization and Austria 
------------------------------------ 
 
5. (C) The PM had a surprising response to the Ambassador's 
query about possible Austrian control of Bratislava's 
Stefanik Airport, with Schwechat airport one of the remaining 
bidders. While noting that he "did not involve himself in 
tenders," Dzurinda thought that "cooperation" (with Austria) 
was sometimes better than competition.  He reasoned that a 
highspeed tram connecting the Bratislava and Vienna airports 
plus the strong opposition of the Greens to expanding 
Schwechat would bode well for Bratislava even with Austrian 
control of the airport.  He also said that there was nothing 
stopping the winning bidder from flipping the airport to the 
Austrians anyway, and it was better that the Slovak taxpayer 
received that spread. 
 
Transatlantic Relations 
----------------------------- 
 
6. (C) On European relations Dzurinda was extraordinarily 
frank.  He pointed out that he personally called Aznar and 
asked to be added to the coalition of the willing prior to 
the Iraq war.  He seemed gleeful that the new Central 
European member states, combined with Britain, moved the EU 
from an organization that "simply parroted the talking points 
of the French and Germans."  Apparently, before the election 
of the last EC Commission head by the European parliament, he 
was yelled at by Chirac for opposing the French nominee 
 
("merely a schill for the French").  The PM pointed out to 
Chirac that in democracies the plurality rules, and Chirac 
didn't have the votes. 
 
7. (C) Dzurinda noted that both Schroeder and Chirac know 
that President Bush has done the right thing in Iraq, but 
they cynically tap into their electorate with the anti-Iraq 
message simply to get votes.  He delighted in the fact that 
Tony Blair had joined the EPP caucus for discussions and 
smiled at the irony.   With reference to President Bush's 
current approval rating, he noted that leadership requires 
courage when doing the right thing, and recalled the 
political abuse he suffered in Parliament for granting NATO 
overflight permission during the NATO bombings of Serbia. 
"Now, 65% of my countrymen approve being part of NATO...And 
look at Croatia now, all I see on Galaxie (the local sports 
channel) are advertisements to visit Croatia."  Dzurinda 
called Chancellor Merkel, "the new Iron Lady."  He marveled 
at how she spoke openly at their first get-together of 
raising the retirement age to 68 in Germany. "This lady is 
tough, and I look forward to working with her," he noted. 
 
8. (C)  The Ambassador thanked Dzurinda for Slovakia's 
growing positive role in international affairs, which will 
only be enhanced as Slovakia takes its seat on the UN 
Security Council in January.  He encouraged the PM to work 
with us on helping in the Balkans. 
 
Pavol Rusko 
---------------- 
 
9. (C) Dzurinda confided to the Ambassador that former 
Economy Minister Pavol Rusko's accient, in which he 
allegedly shot himself in the leg while cleaning a hunting 
rifle, was rather suspicious.  Rusko has a lot of debts to 
unknown "business partners."  Furthermore, revelations that 
he has been secretly taping conversations with former members 
of his ANO party have made many people nervous.  Rumors have 
been flying around Bratislava that there may be more to the 
incident than meets the eye. 
 
Environment and Tourism 
------------------------------- 
 
10. (C)  The Prime Minister was very thankful for Embassy 
efforts to bring U.S. experts to help bridge technical, and 
to some extent political, gaps in the current debate over 
development in the storm-ravaged Tatras, and the Ambassador 
pledged to continue to help.  Dzurinda added that he was not 
concerned about the (slow) pace of tourism development since 
he wanted to make sure it was done in the right way. 
VALLEE 
 
 
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