The presidential institute as an indicator of the state of democracy in the Central Europe

The presidential institute actually played a primal role in the process of transformation in the countries of Central Europe (CE). The initial agreement on re-establishing the head of the state has even predeceased the requirement of setting the first free elections agenda. If there is a discussion whether the transformation processes in this region have already been finished or not we have to focus also on the presidential status in such countries. The central hypothesis and questions to be answered can be formed as follows: Have the presidential leaders accomplished their role and status in the process of democratization in a particular country? Are they the so – called guarantees of an established democracies or not? In consideration of such conditions we can investigate the role of presidents in the countries of Visegrad group – shall it be obvious that the Hungarian president is not commencing any actions due to the raised suspicion of the European Union (strengthened even by Hungarian presidency of the EU) on democratic deficit in current Hungarian government? What are the consequences of a “strong presidential opposition” toward the ruling government as it was during the Kovac and Schuster presidency in Slovakia during the 90´s and at the beginning of a new millennia? Can we claim as ideal concept that the former president Kaczynsky showed an attitude of a strong counterpart to the current prime minister of Poland within the frame of European relations as well as the Czech president Klaus? The discourse of an institutional transformation from the presidential case studies creates a great basis for the final evaluation of the transformation processes and the state of democracy in the CE countries within the framework of the comparative method. Key words: transformation, democratization, presidential institute, presidential role, Central Europe