Ján Slota, the leader of the opposition Slovak National Party (SNS), has criticised an initiative by Most-Híd/OKS MP Ondrej Dostál to amend the law on state symbols as “absurd”.
"This is where the biggest tragedy of the Slovak nation lays – that people who respect neither Slovak statehood, nor the state symbols of Slovak statehood, sit in the Slovak Parliament and are [supposed] to represent the Slovak nation. If somebody thinks that the Slovak Republic is a multicultural state, he is deeply mistaken," Slota told the SITA newswire on Tuesday, October 19.
According to Slota, 85 percent of Slovakia's population is Slovak and Dostál should realise that. It is striking and sad, Slota said, if the MP thinks that symbols of statehood should not be displayed, for example, at schools, where the next generation is being raised.
The law on state symbols, dubbed the Patriot Act, was proposed by Slota’s party when it was in government, but attracted fierce criticism for the obligations and expense it imposed on schools and other public bodies by requiring that state symbols be displayed in classrooms and offices. Opponents also saw it as an attempt to intimidate Slovakia’s Hungarian-speaking minority. Dostál’s amendment would ease the obligations imposed by the original law.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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