BRATISLAVA (AFP)---Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic praised a controversial pre-WWII politician and Catholic priest Andrej Hlinka, who once described himself as the "Slovak Hitler", at a ceremony Saturday.
Gasparovic’s comments came a day after Slovak lawmakers voted a law to honour Hlinka’s memory in a move condemned by Slovak intellectuals, Jewish and Protestant groups.
The president was was speaking at a commemoration marking the 100th anniversary of 15 people being shot by Austro-Hungarian military police at Cernova.
"No one casts doubt on the facts (of the tragedy). Parodoxically, however, they cast doubts on the pesonality that was linked with them in a positive sense," Gasparovic said, in a clear reference to Hlinka.
Hlinka made a profound contribution to reviving Slovaks national
consciousness, Gasparovic continued in a speech interrupted by applause from the assembled crowd, many waving the national flag.
The Cernova shooting was far from an isolated incident and helped focus Slovaks attention on the cruelty of Hungarian policies, the president said.
Leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who attended the commemorations later, said the "milestone in Slovak history" demonstrated Slovaks capacity to stand up for their rights and fight against the odds.
The leader of the rightwing xenophobic Slovak National Party, Jan Slota, which is a junior partner in Fico’s coalition government, said Cernova was caused by "greater Hungarian chauvinism."
Slovakia, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, was administered from
Budapest before the monarchy collapsed at the end of WW1.
Hlinka came from Cernova, now swallowed by the central Slovak town of Ruzemberok, and the ban on him consecrating a new church there helped spark the 1907 demonstations and subsequent shootings.
He is infamous for proclaiming in 1936: "I am the Slovak Hitler. I will
restore order in Slovakia like Hitler did in Germany."
Pro-Nazi regime
After his death in 1938, Hlinka was honoured as a national hero by Jozef Tiso’s short-lived pro-Nazi Slovak regime during World War II but was then considered a "clerico-fascist" by the following communist regime.
The fall of communism in 1989 and the revival of latent nationalism
resulted in a revival in Hlinka’s reputation.
Slota’s party originally called for lawmakers to bestow the title "Father of the Nation" on Hlinka.
They called for a law making any defamation of his name a crime.
Following the ensuing furore and public debate over Hlinka’s place in
history, parliament voted a tamer motion honouring him for having "...largely contributed to helping Slovaks constitute their nation."
