Kiska: Values Must Take Precedence over Blind Obedience to Authority

Banska Bystrica, August 29 (TASR) – Apparent peace, personal comfort, the unwillingness to face an unpleasant truth and false unity can’t serve as justifications for injustice and high-handedness among those in power against their own people, minorities and individuals, said President Andrej Kiska on Wednesday at the central commemoration marking the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) in WWII, describing this as the key message of the events that took place in 1944.

According to Kiska, this legacy should be observed by politicians not only in annual ceremonial speeches at memorials, but more importantly by honest daily actions in service to the public.

“Courageous men and women in Slovakia 74 years ago joined the struggle of the civilised world against the fascist and Nazi ideologies. They decided to fight a regime that didn’t hesitate to send its own people to death in concentration camps. These men and women stood up to governing power that made itself a puppet willing to abuse and humiliate Slovakia. They stood up to the state in order to save the future of their own country and its people,” said Kiska.

“We as a country and community of people through the SNP joined the civilised, democratic and cultured Europe, which rejected and eventually defeated an ideology of evil,” said Kiska, describing the uprising as a turning point in Slovakia’s history.

“I stress that a sound society can’t be kept together by blind obedience to authority, but only by fidelity to values that we can jointly lean on,” said Kiska.

At the event he thanked representatives of other countries whose nationals fought in the SNP. “I thank courageous Russians, Czechs, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Romanians, French, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, British, Americans and others who helped our country to resist the enemy and regain self-respect,” added the president.