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Gasparovic Signs State Symbols Act Amendment
Tuesday 04 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 4 (TASR) - President Ivan Gasparovic on Tuesday signed an amendment to the State Symbols Act, TASR learnt on the same day from Margita Ivanickova from President's press office.
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 will be played or sung before every local council, VUC, Government and parliamentary session.
Slovak Radio and Slovak Television will 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.
The bill, which was passed by Slovak Parliament on April 27, was drawn up by Prime Minister and Smer-SD party head Robert Fico and backed by coalition Smer, LS-HZDS and Slovak National Party (SNS) MPs alike. SNS legislators voted in favour of the amendment even though they were dismissive of the initiative as a political "stratagem" to credit 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 Gasparovic, who said that 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.
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