Slovak News Back to the news
House Okays State Symbols Act Amendment
Tuesday 27 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, April 27 (TASR) - Parliament gave the green light to an amendment to the State Symbols Act on Tuesday, with 80 legislators eventually voting in favour of the initiative that was discussed in fast-tracked proceedings – a process that took only a few hours, TASR learnt on the same day.
The bill, which was forwarded by Prime Minister and Smer-SD party head Robert Fico, was backed by coalition Smer-SD, LS-HZDS and Slovak National Party (SNS) MPs alike. SNS legislators eventually voted in favour of the amendment, even though they were dismissive of the initiative as a political "stratagem" – crediting Smer with what is essentially an SNS initiative.
SNS claims that the amendment covers some 80 percent of the content of the Patriot Act drafted by SNS but vetoed later by President Ivan Gasparovic and eventually also rejected by Parliament earlier Tuesday.
In line with the amendment, the Slovak flag, the lyrics of the anthem and the preamble to the Slovak Constitution will have to be placed in every classroom. The document also includes a requirement, submitted by Education Minister Jan Mikolaj (Slovak National Party/SNS), that patriotic education should become a part of the curricula at each level of the school system.
According to the amendment, which is due to come into effect as of September, the flag and preamble should also be placed in rooms in which sessions of local councils and Higher Territorial Unit authorities take place. The state anthem would be played or sung before every local council, VUC, Government and parliamentary session.
Slovak Radio and Slovak Television would be obliged to include the national anthem in their schedules at the close of every day between 23.30-00.30. The anthem must be broadcast between two programmes, but not as a part of a commercial break. In addition, the anthem should be played at the beginning of every sporting event.
Fico's proposal is similar to the Patriot Act proposed by the co-ruling SNS but vetoed by President Ivan Gasparovic in March. The Patriot Act stated that the national anthem should be played once a week in schools. According to Gasparovic, schools wouldn't have been able to furnish themselves with the necessary equipment (such as loudspeakers for playing the national anthem, and several state symbols) by April.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
