Slovak National Party vice-chair Anna Belousovová and ĽS-HZDS Chairman Vladimír Mečiar have agreed to postpone submitting a complaint to Slovakia’s Constitutional Court concerning the amendment to the Education Act for at least a month, SNS spokesperson Jana Benková told the TASR newswire on February 26.
The two politicians met at a session on February 25 and the main topic of discussion was the controversy of bilingual geographical names in textbooks for ethnic minorities. The parties are preparing their own proposals but if their arguments are similar, they don't exclude the possibility of submitting a joint complaint to the court.
According to the amendment passed by parliament, 'deeply rooted' geographical names in minority languages should be used in textbooks followed by their equivalents in Slovak in brackets or after a slash, as was the case between 2002-06. SNS claims that the law is impossible to apply as the reference to ‘deeply-rooted names’ is a term that is unclear and confusing.
The parties also discussed the issue of further political cooperation and mutual support of each other’s proposals in parliament. The Education Act amendment, drawn up by ethnic Hungarian SMK party, was submitted to parliament in December 2008 and approved. President Ivan Gasparovic vetoed the amendment late last year, claiming that it was unconstitutional and unenforceable. The veto was overruled with votes of members of parliament from the Smer-SD, SDKU-DS, KDH and SMK parties on February 3.
The main governing party Smer is said to have voted with the opposition in order to gain support for its full membership in the Party of European Socialists in Brussels. 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.
