April Fools’ Day Woes Slovak President To Delay Anthem-Singing Bill

April Fools’ Day is a day when people play practical jokes on others.

And the Slovak President wants to make sure his country’s voters won’t confuse the proposed April 1 enactment of a new, supposedly patriotic law, with just another April Fools’ Day joke. So he’s stalling.

A new Slovak law that centers on requiring Slovak school children to sing the national anthem at the start of each school week and would require new clerks in state administration to take a pledge of allegience to Slovakia may not go into force Apr. 1 as earlier planned.

Last Friday, Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic returned the anthem bill back to the National Council, Slovakia’s parliament, requesting some minor amendments and demanding that it become effective from a later date than Apr. 1 to ensure that students at public elementary and high schools take the anthem-singing seriously.

“The date may make some people laugh and therefore it is inappropriate to make such a law effective as of this (Apr. 1) date,” Gasporovic said in a statement Friday.

Inadvertently Mr. Gasparovic, who otherwise supports the patriotic symbolism of the government-sponsored bill, showed that he was aware of how the public views the mandatory weekly anthem singing at Slovak public schools.

“This anthem law is stupid and laughable,” a 35-year-old man living in Bratislava and father of a teenage son who asked to remain anonymous said. “Kids will only make fun of it,” he added.

It will remain to be seen if Slovak lawmakers will have enough courage to pass the laughing-stock bill on the anthem-singing at a later date.