THE GATHERING commemorating the 66th founding of the first Slovak Republic on March 14, 1939, took place without incident, police said.
The meeting was held at wartime leader Jozef Tiso's symbolic grave in the Martinský cemetery in Bratislava on March 13, the TASR news agency reported.
The first Slovak state came about when the first Czechoslovak Republic broke up following the 1938 Munich Agreement. Slovakia became a clerical Nazi puppet state.
The fringe political movement, Slovenská pospolitosť- národná strana - the Slovak Unity-National Party (SP-NS), organized the event. In their manifesto, SP-NS launched sharp verbal attacks against minorities such as the Roma and Jews.
The party says that the "inadaptable" should be forced to work. SP-NS leader Marian Kotleba said the organization would not seek election to parliament, nor would they support the Slovak National Party, led by Ján Slota, which it says is full of "traitors".
About 60 of the 200 people gathered at Father Tiso's grave were dressed in black fascist-like uniforms. Most of them were skinheads. Also present were some senior citizens who remember the first Slovak Republic. Police, including mounted police, monitored the event.
