After the Patriotism Act, drafted by the co-ruling Slovak National Party (SNS), failed to receive backing from the Slovak Parliament’s culture and media committee earlier this week, the same scenario repeated itself at a session of parliament’s constitutional committee on April 22, the TASR newswire wrote.
The bill was vetoed by the Slovak president in March and is now being discussed by parliament for a second time. Within the constitutional committee, the opposition MP from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Peter Miššík and the chairman of the committee, Mojmír Mamojka from Smer party, did not vote to approve the bill.
Katarína Tóthová an MP from the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) said that she voted for the bill even though she thinks that it should have been called an “Amendment to State Symbols Act”. At the same time, she told the TASR newswire that even if the Patriotism Act becomes effective on September 1 (the original date was April 1), schools will not manage to equip themselves with public address systems necessary to play the national anthem every Monday morning.
President Ivan Gašparovič vetoed the Act last month saying that schools would not be able to furnish the necessary equipment so quickly. The bill will now go before parliament for a vote without the backing of the two committees.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
