BRATISLAVA, February 2, (WEBNOVINY) — Softening the provisions of the law on citizenship as proposed by the group of opposition deputies for SMER-SD is insufficient, said Ondrej Dostal from the deputy faction of the junior member of the ruling coalition MOST-HID. He was assessing the opposition proposal, according to which Slovak citizens could acquire citizenship of another country without losing their Slovak passport in cases when their live in this other country and have been registered there for at least six months.
Citizens who applied for Hungarian citizenship, based on the recent controversial version of the Hungarian law, would lose Slovak citizenship, according to SMER-SD draft. The amendment also enables that people who lost Slovak citizenship after they obtained a second citizenship between July 17, 2010 and April 30, 2011, could regain Slovak citizenship in a significantly simpler way as compared to the standard procedure. These people will not have to fulfill the condition of integrity, permanent residence in Slovakia or document their knowledge of Slovak language. Such option also applied to people whose registered stay in the other country lasted at least six months.
Dostal underscored that the law on citizenship did not touch those whom the government wanted to affect. Instead Slovak citizens living in different countries were affected by the current form of the law.
Parliamentary deputy for the Slovak National Party (SNS) Rafael Rafaj stated that his party will support the proposal even though they do not find it ideal. Rafaj views it as unnecessary compromise. “Principality is on the first place for us and that is why for us the most ideal state is the current one. However, when Hungarians fight for every Hungarian, we have to fight for every Slovak,” he stated.
At this parliamentary session, deputies will also discuss the ruling coalition’s draft bill to citizenship as well as the draft bill of the same law tailored by Christian Democrats, which ensues from the need to adjust conditions for performance of several jobs, whose performance is connected with a specific requirement on loyalty to the Slovak Republic.
SITA