President Peter Pellegrini welcomed 35 students on Mondaywho won gold, silver and bronze medals at international subject Olympiads. Presentation of awards the Minister of Education Tomáš Drucker also attended. Both congratulated the talented people on their achievements.
However, there was an unexpected moment during the ceremony when student Simon Omaník refused to shake hands with the presidentbut he submitted it to the head of the Department of Education. He later declared that he had a political problem with Pellegrini, because according to him he should have gotten into the palace by fraud.
The head of state himself declared that he respects the 19-year-old’s decisionbut at the same time she emphasized that the awards ceremony was apolitical. Pellegrini reminded that the ceremony was a celebration of students’ achievements and not a political event.
However, the high school student’s gesture became a hot topic on social networks as wellwhere a number of well-known personalities from politics, but also from Slovak show business commented on him. Some praised him for expressing his opinion forcefully, while others described him as ill-mannered and arrogant.
“When disrespect becomes an object of admiration, we have failed as a society.” wrote the well-known model agent Miro Šimonič on the social network, while once one of his clients is the famous top model Adriana Sklenaříková.
The man who also dined with the French president, thus expressing his concern that According to him, disrespect for authority can be seen as a courageous attitude nowadayswhereby society loses the values of decency and respect.
