All About Czechia & Slovakia

November 25, 2024

Slovenia is not Slovakia!

But the two European nations have been plagued by confusion about their identities ever since their creation in the 1990s.

Anthem Errors

A quick search on Google will uncover dozens of tweets about US First Lady Melania Trump's Slovakian heritage - which doesn't exist. She was born in Sevnica, a Slovenian town (the president's ex-wife, Ivana, was born in Czechoslovakia, but we'll get there).

A curse on both nations, though, is that the wrong flag or the wrong anthem has appeared at many events. In 2017, it was the Ice Hockey World Championships in Germany, where angry Slovaks were forced to drown out the Slovenian anthem with boos and whistles. They were later told their anthem wouldn't be played due to "technical problems".

And the confusion is nothing new. George W Bush famously once talked about his meeting with the Slovak foreign minister - a meeting which never happened. In 2003, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi introduced the prime minister of Slovakia at a press conference. It was Anton Rop - from Slovenia. "It was very strange, we asked journalists not to mention it in their reports," Mr Rop later said.

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

To begin with, it should be noted that both states have similar names, similar flags, but also a similar history. The flags are almost identical, consisting of red, blue and white horizontal stripes.

The key difference is the coat of arms, which is usefully positioned to the left in both.

Slovenia and Slovakia are both Slavic-speaking, of Catholic tradition, and were once (before 1918) part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Because of this cultural heritage, they are usually considered to be part of “Central Europe.”

A few new states were created in Europe at the beginning of the 90s. Two big countries, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, broke into several smaller states. Two of them have similar names: Slovakia and Slovenia. By their natives, they are called Slovensko and Slovenija.

The names can be similar, but these countries have different past - Slovakia rose from the Czechoslovakia, Slovenia from Yugoslavia. While Slovenia suffered of a war conflict, Slovakia separated from its Czech neighbour in a peaceful way. These countries don't share borders, they never did (see the map below - Slovakia in blue, Slovenia in green).

However, they are not situated in the same place. Slovenia is south of the Alps, by the Adriatic Sea, bordering Italy and Croatia. It is separated from Slovakia by two non-Slavic countries: Austria and Hungary. Slovakia is further north, between Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and Czechia.