Slovakia commemorates the 20th anniversary of its constitution

Even though the government of Robert Fico plans to erase the Day of Constitution from the list of Slovakia’s national holidays, it decided to celebrate the anniversary of its adoption in a big style. Yet, the official celebrations held on Friday, August 31, did not attract as many people as the politicians expected and the majority of seats in the audience remained empty, the Sme daily reported.

Even though the government of Robert Fico plans to erase the Day of Constitution from the list of Slovakia’s national holidays, it decided to celebrate the anniversary of its adoption in a big style. Yet, the official celebrations held on Friday, August 31, did not attract as many people as the politicians expected and the majority of seats in the audience remained empty, the Sme daily reported.

The live broadcast transmitted by the public broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) also failed to attract much of an audience as it was viewed by only about 128,000 people, Sme wrote.

The celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the constitution have also raised some criticism. MP for the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) Radoslav Procházka said that the constitution is rumpled and tired. He added that the constitution is still in the same condition as the community that it manages, the SITA newswire wrote.

Gábor Gál from Most-Híd said that the constitution has many holes, yet, the holes do not come from erroneous measures, but because it is not considered to be the basic law which has to be observed under any circumstances. He pointed especially to the decision of the president not to appoint a new general prosecutor, SITA wrote.

He added that it is necessary to strengthen the reverence of laws rather than to think about a new, more perfect constitution.

The Slovak constitution is comprised of a preamble and nine parts. It currently has 13,896 words, nearly 84,000 signs and 427 sections. The most used words are ‘Slovak’, ‘republic’, ‘national’ and ‘council’, according to an analysis of the Office of the Parliament, SITA reported.

The constitution has been amended more than 10 times. The latest change pertains to the scrapping of criminal immunity of deputies.

Source: SME, SITA

Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports

The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

Top stories

Janka, a blogger, during the inauguration of the first flight to Athens with Aegean Airlines at the airport in Bratislava on September 14, 2023.

A Czech rail operator connects Prague and Ukraine, Dominika Cibulková endorses Pellegrini, and Bratislava events.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad