RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol 1, No. 147, 27 October 1997

NEW ELECTORAL ALLIANCE IN HUNGARY. The national board of the
Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) on 25 October accepted
the Independent Smallholders' offer to set up an electoral alliance,
Hungarian media reported. The board rejected setting up a Christian
Democratic union with the Democratic Forum, as reformists within
the party had demanded. At the same time, it did not rule out
cooperating with that party in the second round of the 1998
elections. Some reformists' membership in the KDNP was suspended,
while deputy chairman Zsolt Semjen, and honorary chairman Sandor
Keresztes both resigned.

OPPOSITION LEADER WANTS ANTI-MILOSEVIC COALITION. Zoran
Djindjic, the president of Serbia's Democratic Party, said in Bijeljina in
the Republika Srpska on 25 October that Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's opponents everywhere must unite. Djindjic
called for an alliance between himself, Republika Srpska President
Biljana Plavsic--with whom he met in Bijeljina--and Montenegro's
Djukanovic. Djindjic charged that Milosevic is actively backing the
hard-line rivals of Plavsic and Djukanovic. Meanwhile in Belgrade, six
Serbian parties formed the League of Democratic Parties on 26
October. The league unites representatives of the Hungarian and
Muslim minorities, as well as regional parties from Vojvodina,
Sandzak, and Sumadija.

IMF DISSATISFIED WITH ROMANIAN PERFORMANCE. IMF chief
negotiator for Romania Poul Thompsen says he is "not satisfied" with
the pace of economic reforms in Romania, particularly that of
privatization, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on 24 October.
Thompsen had just concluded a week-long fact-finding visit to
Bucharest. In other news, Adrian Nastase, the deputy chairman of
the Party of Social Democracy in Romania, has condemned what he
termed the "enforced Magyarization" of Romanians who live in
counties where ethnic Hungarians are in a majority, according to the
bureau on 26 October.

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