BRATISLAVA, April 5, (WEBNOVINY) — President Ivan Gasparovic will not announce a referendum on whether the Slovak language should be the only official language in Slovakia. The President’s Office evaluated the petition sheets of the Slovak National Party (SNS) and concluded that of the total of 361,117 signatures, 336,629 were valid and 24,488 were invalid. According to the Slovak Constitution, the president is obliged to announce a referendum based on a petition supported with 350,000 valid signatures, as long as the referendum question does not concern basic human rights or taxation. „As the submitted petition sheets contained only 336,629 valid signatures, the referendum cannot be announced,“ the President’s Office announced.
SNS Chairman Jan Slota perceives the decision of the President’s Office as attempt to bury the party’s initiative. “When someone does not want to announce a referendum, an excuse can always be found,” he told SITA news agency. He believes that the office incorrectly counted the signatures. „They did not count it well; we counted it twice and we did have 350,000 signatures.
Members of the now non-parliamentary Slovak National Party (SNS) led by Jan Slota delivered petition sheets to the president on March 7. The party wanted to ask Slovak citizens in the plebiscite whether they agreed that the Slovak language should be the only language used in official communication on the whole territory of the country.
According to some lawyers, a referendum on whether the Slovak language should be the official language on the whole territory of Slovakia would be unconstitutional as the constitution does not allow referendums on fundamental human rights and freedoms. According to the Slovak constitution, using minority languages in official communication is among fundamental human rights and freedoms.
SITA