The EU’s Austrian presidency has welcomed the result of last weekend’s elections in Slovakia

Date: 01/10/1998

saying that a new government could “fulfil one of the key preconditions for faster integration into the European Union”. Slovakia's four-party opposition won 93 of the 150 seats in the national parliament, defeating autocratic Prime Minister Vladimir Meclar and raising hopes that the new government could begin changing Slovakian law to give greater protection to minorities. Slovakia has been excluded from the first wave of accession candidates for failing to satisfy the EU on a number of democracy issues.