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sal Action The Cabinet discussed the continuing industrial action in
bulance the Ambulance Service. The discussion is recorded
separately.
FIDEN
C(89) 36
OREIGN AFFAIRS
astern Europe
THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
WALDEGRAVE) said that rapid developments were ntinuing in Eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia, there
to be elections next year and the majority of the Ministers in the interim government were non-Communists. A complicated and potentially fraught situation was building up over the election of an interim President of the Republic. The elections might be carried out by the Federal Assembly which was still dominated by the Communists Support for Mr Vaclav Havel was increasing and he was the strongest candidate to become interim President. However, the comunists might propose Mr Alexander Dubcek. He was a Cour, and a somewhat outdated figure, so that such a predal could spark off strikes and
demonstrations. ulgaria the new Party Leader, Mr Petar Mladenov, had made surprising commitment to allow free elections by June 1996 He had also proposed the abolition of the leading role of the Party. In Poland the new government was likely to sign a Letter of Intent with the International Monetary Ny the end of the week. The Solidarity leader, Mr Lehesa, had issued an unexpected call for "special powers were probably intended to speed up implementation of the vernment's austerity
measures, to which he was giving seful support. Nevertheless, his call carried unfortunate echoes of the demands for special powers made yeneral Pilsudski in the 1920s. The Hungarian Prime Minier Mr Miklos Nemeth,
Mr Of had just visited London where he had seen the Prime Minister and other Ministers. He had given an impressive account of his government's determination to press ahead with the necessary economic measures. He was having considerable difficulty with the present Pament, whose Members had been elected under the old sytem) They were now trying to increase their popularity by a 3ng populist positions. Finally, the situation in East Germany was most difficult and dangerous. In demonstrations in the streets there had been increasing calls for reunication.
viet President's
beech at the ommunist Party entral Committee lenum
THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE that the Soviet President, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, had made an important speech on 9 December at the Communist Party Central Committee Plenum. The telegram from the Embassy in Moscow said that President Gorbachev had used more ominous
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