The current Slovak legislative is allowing prosecution for denying the holocaust and hate speech, but in practice the majority of the cases had been taken off the table. This is the reason why the definition of anti-semitism is being specified.
“We are living in hard times when the fundamental rights are being denied. We have people in politics who deny the holocaust. The history should teach us, it is our duty to solve the problem with the definition of the holocaust and anti-semitism,” said Andrej Danko (SNS) the Speaker of the Parliament. The politician wants to apply the changes in other areas as well including the Penal Code, which does not define the concept clearly.
The definition suggested by Danko was worked out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on 2016. Pavol Mešťan, the director of the Museum of Jewish History in Bratislava supports the changes and emphasized the need for preparing a similar law, while other experts, like Daniela Gemerská from the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights warned about the dangers of implementing a very strict definition, which cannot be applied in every case.
