Slovakia decides it is foolish to enact 'Patriot Act' on April 1st

HAVING ENDURED international ridicule when one of its aircraft flew explosives to Dublin, Slovakia has sought to spare itself more blushes by delaying the introduction of a controversial new “Patriot Act” that was due to come into force on April Fools’ Day.

The law is beloved of the nationalists who are part of the ruling coalition, but it is loathed by many parents and teachers in Slovakia, who scorn its stipulation that everyone in primary, secondary and university education must sing the national anthem at the start of each week.

The law also states every classroom should display Slovakia’s state symbols and national flag, the words to its anthem and the preamble to its constitution, and that other types of “patriotic education” must become part of the curriculum.

But amid widespread criticism and mockery of the law, president Ivan Gasparovic decided that September might be a more appropriate date to sign the law than April 1st.

“I will not sign this law, because of pragmatic reasons. I do agree with the content of the law . . . I have a problem with the date,” he said.

“This date raises a smile upon people’s faces, I don’t think it is appropriate for such a law to enter into force on such a day.”

About 1,000 students and teachers protested against the law in the capital, Bratislava, this month, waving banners that read “We don’t need a law to be patriots.” Eduard Chmelar, the father of one teenager, said: “My son will not sing the anthem every Monday. One week he will be sick, next week his bus will be late so that he misses the first Monday’s lesson.”

The law has also stoked anxiety in Slovakia’s large Hungarian minority, which has felt ill at ease since prime minister Robert Fico’s party joined forces with the far-right Slovak National Party. The government is also under fire at home and abroad for plans to introduce boarding schools exclusively for Roma children to improve their education. Critics say it will only reinforce segregation and discrimination in Slovak society and deepen the Roma minority’s isolation.

Mr Fico is still expected to win another term in June’s general election despite a series of scandals.

A recent poll showed that Slovaks considered the most serious of the government’s travails to have been its handling of an airport security test that went badly wrong in January.

A police officer at Poprad-Tatry airport accidentally left explosives in a male passenger’s luggage after conducting an exercise with his sniffer dog, and the bag was loaded on to a flight to Dublin. The explosives were retrieved from the man’s Dublin flat several days later after a security alert.