RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  16 April 1999

HUNGARIAN PREMIER RULES OUT NATO GROUND FORCES STRIKE.
Viktor Orban, on a one-day official visit to the UK,
told Premier Tony Blair and former Premier Margaret
Thatcher that Budapest agreed with the need to step up
the air strikes on Yugoslavia. Orban later told
journalists that Budapest will not approve a NATO ground
forces intervention. He said that Hungary faces a "hard
decision" because it cannot assume "obligations that
would further endanger" ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina.
Defense Minister Janos Szabo said after meeting his
British counterpart, George Robertson, that there is "no
chance" for NATO ground forces to enter Yugoslavia from
Hungary, Hungarian media reported. MS

HUNGARIAN SMALLHOLDERS AGREE TO DIRECT PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTIONS. Smallholders' Party chairman Joszef Torgyan
said on 15 April that his party will support the direct
election of the state president, despite the fact that
the coalition agreement gives the party the prerogative
to nominate the presidential candidate, Hungarian media
reported. Former Free Democratic Party chairman Janos
Kis on the same day asked the Constitutional Court to
rule whether the decision of the National Election
Committee on a possible referendum on the presidential
election was not unconstitutional, since it would entail
changes to the country's basic document (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 15 April 1999). MS

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