On Sunday, approximately 300 Hungarians living in Slovakia protested in front of the Slovak Parliament against the amendment of the State Symbol Act, vetoed by Slovak President Andrej Kiska. After the veto, the amendment was returned to Parliament.
The Most-Híd junior coalition party representing ethnic Hungarians will not vote to break the president's veto. If Parliament overrules the president's veto, Most-Híd proposes a draft that will undergo fast-track proceedings in order to "make the interpretation of the section on playing and singing the national anthems of other countries clear to everyone. So that everyone will know that no one and no law denies them this right," stressed the party in a written statement.
After the meeting with the protesters, Andrej Danko, Speaker of Parliament and chair of the Slovak National Party, which proposed this amendment said that everything needed to be done to ensure that Slovaks and Hungarians have sound relations. He also added that the bill does not forbid the playing of any anthem, but does state that foreign anthems cannot be played or sung on national holidays if no national delegation of the given state is present.
The Slovak National Party claims that it is a reaction to a new logo on the jerseys of the Slovak national ice hockey team, which combines the Slovak national symbol with ice hockey sticks. The party claims that it wanted to give more protection to state symbols.
