THE ALLIANCE for Family (AZR) launched its effort to collect signatures for a petition to announce a referendum on the protection of traditional family, which it plans to collect with the municipal elections held this autumn, on April 5.
The AZR aims to ask Slovaks four questions: first, whether they agree with the notion that marriage should be a term exclusively applied for a union of one man and one woman; second, whether they agree that same-sex couples should not be allowed to adopt children; third, whether they agree with the notion that no other form of partnership except marriage should have special protection and the rights and obligations granted to married heterosexual persons; and fourth, whether they agree that schools will not be allowed to require children’s participation in sex education classes or in classes teaching about euthanasia if the parents of the children do not agree with the content of such classes, the TASR newswire reported.
“What we want to achieve with this petition is very simple,” said Anton Chromík, AZR spokesperson, as quoted by TASR. “We want to offer Slovakia an option to say ‘no’ to social experiments. We want to offer the opportunity to say that, for its development, Slovakia wants to maintain the functionality of certain institutions. That no other cohabitation except the union between one man and one woman can be called a marriage, that two fathers cannot replace a mother and that two or three mothers cannot replace a father.”
Chromík added that the organisers would be happy if society came to an agreement through a referendum that parents should have a guaranteed right for education of their children in accordance with their values and persuasion and that the school cannot force them into education programmes on sexual behaviour or different cultural and ethical issues without their consent.
“These are simple and elementary things, and therefore I believe that fathers and mothers in Slovakia will support this petition and this referendum without problems,” Chromík said.
Organisers need to collect 350,000 signatures.
“We are pleased that newly-elected president Andrej Kiska promised to us before the second round of the presidential election that if the petition meets constitutional requirements he will schedule a referendum and if possible, combine it with other elections to save costs,” Peter Kremský of AZR told TASR.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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