HUNGARIAN MEDIA:POLLS IN CROATIA PROVE THAT IT'S DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY

BUDAPEST, Jan 5 (Hina) - Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban, giving his regular statement to the Hungarian state radio on Wednesday, said that recent parliamentary election in Croatia had confirmed that Croatia is a democratic country. The election for the Sabor House of Representatives and early returns made headlines on frontages of the press in Hungary. The Budapest-based "Magyar Hirlap" paper quoted Laszlo Kovacs, the leader of the Hungarian major opposition party, Hungarian Socialists (MSZP), as saying that the opposition's victory was guarantee for speeding up democratic changes in the country. Kovacs added that Hungarian Socialists had been cooperating closely with the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) and the MSZP supported the bid of the SDP to be granted full membership in the Socialist International at the congress held in Paris. The daily "Nepszabadsag" with the highest circulation in Hungary quoted the Foreign Ministry's political secretary of state, Zsolt Nemet, as saying that the biggest ruling party in Hungary, called FIDESZ, had traditional ties with Croatian Liberals (Croatian Social Liberal Party or HSLS) that were in the winning coalition with the SDP. (hina) mm ms