Editing Vladimír Mečiar (section)

=== Third term ===
During the following period, he was constantly criticized by his opponents and Western countries for an [[autocratic]] style of administration, lack of respect for democracy, misuse of state media for propaganda, corruption and the shady privatization of national companies that occurred during his rule. Privatization during the 1990s in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic was harmed by widespread unlawful [[asset stripping]] (also described by the journalistic term of ''tunnelling'').

At the same time relations between Mečiar and the President of Slovakia, [[Michal Kováč]] were rather strained. He was also blamed for having engaged the [[Slovenská informačná služba|Slovak secret service]] (SIS) in the [[Crime in Slovakia|abduction]] of the President's son [[Michal Kováč, Jr.]] — wanted on a warrant for a financial crime in Germany — to [[Hainburg, Austria]], in August 1995, but his guilt has not been proven.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/did-slovak-pm-plan-kidnapping-of-presidents-son-1600357.html|title = Did Slovak PM plan kidnapping of President's son?|website = [[Independent.co.uk]]|date = 22 October 2011}}</ref> However, after Kovač's term expired in March 1998 the Slovak parliament was unable to elect a successor, so Mečiar also temporarily assumed the role of acting president. As president, he issued an amnesty for some of those accused of the abduction. As a result, Slovakia under his rule became partially isolated from the West and the pace of [[European Union|EU]] and [[NATO]] accession negotiations was much slower than in the case of neighboring countries, although Mečiar supported both EU and NATO memberships for his country and submitted Slovakia's applications to both organisations.

Mečiar and HZDS narrowly finished first in the 1998 elections, with 27% of the votes.  However, he was unable to create a coalition, and [[Mikuláš Dzurinda]] from the opposition became the new Prime Minister. Afterwards, Mečiar was one of the two leading candidates for the first direct election of the president of Slovakia in 1999, but he was defeated by [[Rudolf Schuster]]. In 2000, Mečiar's HZDS was renamed "People's Party — Movement for a Democratic Slovakia".