By Janja Strah
The reader of Demokracija magazine is appalled by the unfurled flag of the Soviet Union on the maypole in Kostanjevica na Krasu.
“To my astonishment, I saw a maypole with the flag of Soviet Russia in Kostanjevica na Krasu yesterday,” a reader of Demokracija told us in an e-mail, who also attached photos.
It is the flag of the Soviet Union. Article 14 of the Protection of Public Order and Peace Act also regulates the rules on the display of a foreign flag, but it is only criminal to display a foreign flag in conflict with Article 4 of this Act. Article 4 states that the flags of foreign countries may be flown only if this does not damage the reputation of the Republic of Slovenia or a foreign country, mutatis mutandis in places and in the manner prescribed by the regulation governing the display of the flag of the Republic of Slovenia.
Otherwise, the display of foreign flags in public is reserved for official or working visits of heads of state, official delegations, or official representatives of legislative, judicial, or executive bodies of foreign countries, “at international meetings and international sports or other public events or public gatherings with international participation and in front of hotels and other facilities where their purpose is indicated by hanging.”
There are no other reasons like personal vanity among the worshipers of the image of the failed communist totalitarian regime to hang the flag of the Soviet Union. Our reader, meanwhile, wonders how such an act does not cause any repercussions or reactions. “Probably because we are entering the promised period of democracy, which is why they are already removing the protest fence in Ljubljana.”