Criticism, witchcraft and 20 thousand "in the pocket". In Bratislava, people sang an anthem that is "for everyone"

From the Secret Cause Project

Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová recently announced a new project. It is to change one of the national symbols of Slovakia. Slovaks will hear the new version of the Slovak anthem at the beginning of 2025.

The ministry approached one of the most famous Slovak conductors and composers, Oskar Rózsa. Due to the circumstances, however, he has earned a dose of criticism from a part of society.

The Slovak Philharmonic has confirmed that the recording of the new anthem arrangement was carried out without payment. The recording was to be personally supervised by the Minister and the Secretary of the Service Office of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Lukáš Machala.

The musicians received nothing

Šimkovič's ministry informed that the idea of modernising the anthem originated in 2011, when Rózsa submitted his proposal to the Culture Ministry. However, the project was not commissioned by the composer himself, but by the Ministry of Culture, which directly assigned the task to the Slovak Philharmonic.

According to the published contract, Rózsa will receive 20 thousand euros as royalties. Another 26,500 euros are to cover the costs of the production of the sound recording, but the contract does not include remuneration for other musicians and singers. The ministry responded that the creation of an artistic work is not subject to public procurement.

Criticism and witchcraft

But that was not the only public criticism. It was also mentioned in connection with the new anthem that the ministry had announced the change without prior dialogue and at a time of consolidation.

In his own words, Rózsa has received a lot of negative comments and some people are said to be trying to "curse" him . In one of his videos, he stated that the new anthem is not for those who disagree with it.

At the same time, he responded that there are many more such people than those who are rebelling against it.

See related report from 24 November.

Singing of the national anthem in front of the ministry

In this context, the SaS party, director and civic activist Nikita Slovák and SaS MP Alojz Hlina organised a singing of the Slovak anthem in front of the Ministry of Culture.

They see this as a message to the leadership of the ministry, which, in their opinion, has decided to polarise society even on the subject of state symbols.

"On Friday at 17:00, those who are not worthy of the new anthem will meet for a brief moment. Together we will sing OUR anthem," the description of the event on the social networking site read.

Rózsa announced that the new anthem was not for everyone from an English pub in the company of Daniel Bombic, a known extremist who has three international arrest warrants out for him, and Lukáš Machala, a senior official from the culture ministry. This act was again met with a wave of criticism from a section of the public and the opposition.