BRATISLAVA, February 10, (WEBNOVINY) — Parliament did not pass any of the amendments to the state citizenship law on Thursday. In this situation, the current law remains in effect, under which Slovak citizens, who obtain a passport of another country, will lose their Slovak citizenship. Authors of the coalition’s amendment to the state citizenship law withdrew it from the parliamentary agenda after head of the Ordinary People faction in the SaS caucus, Igor Matovic pushed through his amending proposal with support of the opposition and Radoslav Prochazka of KDH.
The coalition’s amendment was to fix the anti-law on dual citizenship, which was pushed through under Robert Fico in response to Hungary’s dual citizenship, which deprives of Slovak citizenship anyone who decides to accept citizenship of another country. According to the coalition’s draft Slovakia would not acknowledge effects of the Hungarian law but would not punish those who would require Hungarian citizenship under it. SMER-SD has sent to parliament its own proposal to soothe its law enabling dual citizenship for those who live abroad in the long-run while Matovic has submitted a an amending proposal, which he called a compromise.
Unlike the coalition’s amendment, the approved Matovic’s amending proposal preserves the loss of the Slovak citizenship for people who obtain a passport of another country. However, people who accepted citizenship of another country after working, living, studying or running business for at least one year there or those whose close relatives come from the country, can keep the Slovak citizenship. This wording was unacceptable for the coalition party MOST-HID, which insisted on cancellation of sanctions and upheld introduction of a provision, according to which Slovakia would not acknowledge obtaining other country’s passport if acquired in conflict with the international law. Both Matovic and Prochazka called such approach to be ignoring the problem.
Since the coalition withdrew the amendment to the state citizenship law, KDH deputies acted similarly with their amendment to the civil service law banning people with two passports from working in professions handling classified information.
In the following vote, the opposition SMER-SD’s amendment failed to go through. Opposition deputies indented to soften the law so that people who received citizenship of another country would not lose the Slovak passport if their registered stay in another country lasted for at least twelve months. Only opposition deputies assisted by Prochazka and Matovic, backed this amendment so it was turend down. However, Matovic broke his word since he said prior to the vote that he would not give his support to SMER’s amendment.
The current legal status quo thus has not changed and people, who apply for and obtained other country’s citizenship have to report it to authorities and lose Slovak citizenship, otherwise they face a fine of EUR 3,319.
SMER-SD Chairman Robert Fico finds today’s unsuccessful parliamentary vote on the amendment to the state citizenship law to be a big Slovak victory. “Not opposition’s but Slovak victory,” said Fico to journalists. He is satisfied with what happened in parliament today because there is a certain power of opposition deputies and some MPs from coalition, who are interested in blocking Orban’s politics. “SMER-SD is ready to support similar bills and if there is accord on the amendment to the existing law, SMER-SD will back it,” said Fico.
Leader of the Ordinary People faction Igor Matovic said that by not approving the coalition’s amendment to the state citizenship law, space for a real agreement has been created. “We have a clean table, arguments should be presented and compromise reached,” he said after today’s vote.
Head of MOST-HID Bela Bugar stated that if Matovic succeeds to have his amendment pushed through with help of the opposition, he would consider him an opposition deputy. Matovic, however, still feels as a member of the coalition. “I am a coalition deputy with his own opinion on some bills and who is not willing to create space for expansionism, which is in head of Viktor Orban,” he explained.
SITA