Slovakia softens national pride law after outcry

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia's parliament on Tuesday passed a softened version of legislation meant to boost national pride, dropping clauses that raised an outcry in a central European nation with just 17 years of independence.

The law's original incarnation, requiring schools to play the national anthem every week and public employees to take an oath to the state, sent hundreds of teachers and students into the streets in a rare protest in March.

They asserted that it was not possible to legislate patriotism and love for one's country, and that public money should be spent on renovating school premises rather than on flags and copies of the constitution.

To calm the storm, President Ivan Gasparovic returned the law to parliament where Prime Minister Robert Fico's left-wing SMER party tweaked it to require schools to play the national anthem only at the start of the academic year.

Civil servants will also not be requested to swear allegiance to the state when taking up a job.

The rejigged legislation still instructs all public offices to increase the use of state symbols, such as the flag, text of the constitution and the anthem.

This is little different from current practice and an easy retreat for Fico from the original law, which was drafted by his coalition partner, the nationalist Slovak National Party, and only half-heartedly backed by SMER.

Opinion polls show SMER poised to win the next parliamentary election in June and be able to govern either with some of Fico's current partners or one of the opposition parties.

The legislative dispute illustrated how national identity has become an election issue in a country at odds with its former ruler, Hungary, over the treatment of the ethnic Hungarian minority living in Slovakia.

Slovakia adopted a new language law last year stipulating that only Slovak may be used in most public offices and institutions, triggering protests in Hungary over fears the move aimed to suppress ethnic Hungarian culture in Slovakia.

The 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, however, found nothing wrong with the law.

(Reporting by Martin Santa; Editing by Mark Heinrich)