Slovak Parliament Commemorates 170th Anniversary of Predecessor

Slovak Parliament Commemorates 170th Anniversary of Predecessor

Bratislava, September 19 (TASR) – The Slovak national anthem was played in Parliament (officially National Council of the Slovak Republic) on Wednesday to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the Slovak National Council, which was a political body set up during the 1848 Revolution and could be regarded as a predecessor of both the current Slovak Parliament and Government.


“The Slovak National Council existed for only a short time, but it represented with dignity the Slovak nation in its fight for self-determination, a self-reliant status, the codification of the state language, for spiritual and material renewal and in its efforts to achieve statehood,” said Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS).

“The struggle for modern Slovak statehood began 170 years ago. The emancipation efforts of the Slovak nation culminated on January 1, 1993 with the setting up of an independent and democratic Slovak Republic,” added Danko.

The Slovak National Council held its first session at an inn called ‘U Sperla’ in Vienna on September 15-16, 1848. Headed by leading Slovak national revivalists Ludovit Stur, Michal Miloslav Hodza and Jozef Miloslav Hurban, it became the first national political body of Slovaks and the headquarters of the armed Slovak uprising in 1848-49. When the revolution was suppressed, the Slovak National Council ceased to exist in the autumn of 1849.

The Slovak National Council is commemorated in Slovakia by a Day of Remembrance on September 19, the date when in 1848 the council organised the first national meeting of Slovaks in Myjava (Trencin region) to launch a Slovak volunteer campaign for the uprising, while Stur declared Slovakia’s independence from the Kingdom of Hungary.