BRATISLAVA, Slovakia—Incumbent Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic swore an oath before Constitutional Court chair Ivetta Macejkova, officially starting his second term of presidency. The official ceremony was held in the historic building of the Slovak National Theatre on Monday, June 15.
Gasparovic, 68, became the first head of Slovakia to serve two terms. One of the guests at the inauguration was the former opposition MP Iveta Radicova, his main opponent in the elections. Gasparovic won by getting 55.5 percent of votes in the April runoff.
Before the welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace, a handful of human rights activists mixed with the Gasparovic supporters. Soon after the President began his speech from the Palace balcony, they showed letters above their heads forming a slogan saying "Human rights in China."
"We wanted to point out that on Thursday and Friday of this week, a Chinese President is to visit Slovakia, so we wanted to appeal to our democratically elected head of state to open the issue of human rights at this meeting," said Ondrej Dostal from the Civic Conservative Party and representative of the activists.
The situation became tense after the President supporters started to verbally attack the activists and tried to tear apart their banners.
"People who just lift paper signs above their head and do nothing, those might not interest us," Gasparovic told the activists, dismissing their appeal.
"We would do more if we could!" one of the protester shouted back.
The activists plan to hold another protest during the Chinese President Hu's visit.
