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Constitutional Act No. 102/1990 Coll., on the Czech State Symbols

The Constitutional Act was adopted on 20 April 1990. It came into effect on the day of its promulgation on 23 April 1990. It regulated the emblem, flag, standarta, state seal and the national anthem. The emblem that consisted of a quartered shield with the Czech emblem in the 1^st and 4^th field and the Slovak emblem with silver double-cross in 2^nd and 3^rd field went thru a change. The new emblem did not take over the Slovak emblem of 1960 and returned to the original Slovak emblem. The emblem ignored the emblems of Moravia and Silesia that formed important parts of the Czechoslovak territory. The original proposition by Václav Havel contained the emblem of Moravia (red and silver chequered female eagle on the blue field) as a central inescutcheon. However, the Czechoslovak emblem was in the end approved without the Moravian inescutcheon. The flag remained unchanged.

The standarta of the president was white with the edge composed of white, red and blue flames. The white field had Czechoslovak emblem in its centre. Below the emblem was a red ribbon with a silver sigh “VERITAS VINCIT”. Above both ends of the ribbon there were golden linden sprigs with two leaves. The standarta of the president was square. Apart from the new state emblem also the headword “The truth prevails” was no longer in Czech but in Latin which was language neutral to both Czech and Slovak.

The state seal was composed of the state emblem with linden twigs on the sides and with the name of the state in Czech and Slovak around it. The seal preserved the president.

The anthem consisted of the anthem of the Czech republic (Kde domov můj – Where is my home) and the first stanza of the anthem of Slovakia. The Slovak anthem changed because Slovak National Council entacted the song Nad Tatrou sa blýská by Janko Matúška as anthem in its original version with wording “Zastaveme ich bratia, veď sa oni stratia, Slováci ožijú.” [“Let’s stop them brothers, after all they will disappear, the Slovaks will revive.”] In the previous period the wording was: “Zastavme sa bratia…” [“Let’s stop brothers…”]