Instead of siren sound, residents heard PM Fico criticising his opponent

Town of Žiar nad Hronom distanced itself from broadcast.

By: sme.sk

Sep 05 2024
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Instead of siren sound, reside

Usually on every other Fridays at noon, sirens blare across Slovakia. This is a test that the Interior Ministry regularly conducts, during which sirens sound off for two minutes.

However, on one such occasion August 23, instead of sirens residents of select towns of Banská Bystrica Region heard part of a radio report on PM Robert Fico's press conference, reports the Aktuality news site. The PM accused Progressive Slovakia chair Michal Šimečka, his political opponent, of trying to protect the financial interests of his family by organising protests. Fico also announced that he would propose his removal from the post of Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

On this particular Friday, sirens blared in the districts of Banská Bystrica, Zvolen, Žiar nad Hronom, and Brezno. The extraordinary test was supposed to have been carried out with the "live broadcast radio signal".

The test should have been related to preparations for the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising in Banská Bystrica on August 28-29, according to the Interior Ministry press department. That the test was conducted with a live broadcast instead of sirens was to avoid panic, added the ministry.

The town of Žiar nad Hronom distanced itself from the broadcast.

"Like other towns and municipalities, we are not responsible for the content broadcast on the radio at the time of the siren test. We were not informed about its topic in advance. Our duty was to inform citizens about the siren test, not to push the broadcast content to the residents in the form of any political propaganda," the town wrote on its Facebook page.

After the broadcast, several critical comments appeared under the post, critical of the content.

Elsewhere, in the village of Pozdišovce in eastern Slovakia, on the evening of the anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising, the local public address system first played the Slovak national anthem. Shortly thereafter, the only speech broadcast was delivered by the chair of the local branch of the Communist Party of Slovakia.