BRATISLAVA, September 23, (WEBNOVINY)- The Interior Ministry led by KDH nominee Daniel Lipsic has decided to withdraw its amendment to the State Citizenship Law from interdepartmental review. Part of the revision is the exception based on which a Slovak citizen shall not lose the Slovak citizenship if he/she acquires citizenship of the Czech Republic. As a result, the current status quo was to be preserved even if the Czech citizenship is acquired “based on an expression of free will.” The department justified its proposal with “long-lasting historical, cultural, and family ties of members of the two nations and states.” However, the minsitry explained on Friday that this stipulation made it to the submitted amendment by mistake. The ministry blames the error on employees of its public administration section.
„It is unacceptable to acknowledge another state citizenship without any form of stay in another country. The amendment to the law in its current wording violates the principle, which I principally reject,“ said Lipsic. He says he has always abided by this principle including also requests of foreign Slovaks who asked for Slovak citizenship. The minister always turned down these applications if applicants did not have permanent residence in Slovakia. The amendment to the law on state citizenship prepared by the Interior Ministry was to resolve problems that citizens are faced in practice, in line with the government program statement.
The amendment however stirred strong concerns among mebmers of the coalition MOST-HID. „It is unacceptable to discriminate Slovaks in other countries,“ its leader Bela Bugar commented. He is disappointed that Lipsic does not completely cancel the amendment by the Robert Fico government that automatically strips Slovak citizens of their citizenship after acquiring another country’s citizenship. Gabor Gal of the MOST-HID deputy club has called the revision discriminatory. “It should affect everyone that will apply for citizenship of another state and lose the Slovak one,” he noted. If the ministry sees the applicable wording of the law as deficient, it should come up with a complex solution, not a partial one. He considers the tabled draft bill useless. Gal highlighted that the MOST-HID deputy caucus supports a comprehensive solution. In the most ideal case, Fico’s amendment would be revoked and the previous status quo restored.
The applicable law on state citizenship, passed by the government led by SMER-SD chief Robert Fico, does not enable people to have citizenships of two countries if the second one was accepted based on an expression of will. The norm was adopted in reaction to the Hungarian act that enables the acquisition of the Hungarian citizenship even to people than do not have permanent residence and have never lived in Hungary. It is enough if they have Hungarian predecessors. In spite of objections raised by some coalition parties, Fico’s law has not been revised until now. A group of ruling coalition deputies have contested it at the Constitutional Court this week.
SITA