Kiska: We Can't Tolerate Fascism While Celebrating SNP

Banska Bystrica, August 29 (TASR) – Slovakia shouldn’t celebrate a state holiday marking an uprising against fascism while at the same time tolerating any displays of fascism, said President Andrej Kiska at the main national commemoration event marking the 72nd anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) during WWII in Banska Bystrica on Monday.

The event, taking place under the auspices of Slovakia’s Presidency of the EU Council, was also attended by Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko, Prime Minister Robert Fico, several other members of the Cabinet, former president Ivan Gasparovic, European Commission Vice-president Maros Sefcovic and representatives of more than 30 embassies among others.

According to Kiska, the state shouldn’t just take up an indifferent posture towards the opinion that August 29, 1944, the date on which the uprising began, was a black day in Slovak history.

“We can’t play tactically. It isn’t possible to come to this site, endorsing this brilliant chapter in our modern history with head held high, laying wreaths at memorials to the fallen, but at the same time indifferently overlook opinions that August 29, 1944 was allegedly a black day in Slovak history. We can and must come to understand the causes of open support for neo-Nazism, fascism, racism and ever more open displays of hate. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean making compromises with those that profess this and turning a blind eye to this in an understanding and perhaps even apologetic manner. It must be clear to everyone that support for such ideologies and displays of them don’t represent national resistance but human shame,” added Kiska.