A TOTAL of 296 people have been stripped of their Slovak citizenship since an amendment to the State Citizenship Act – itself a direct response to Hungary’s dual-citizenship legislation – came into force on July 17, 2010, the TASR newswire reported.
The highest number of people (149) who lost their Slovak citizenship did so after acquiring that of the Czech Republic, followed by those who acquired the citizenship of Austria (37), Germany (34), Hungary (25), the United Kingdom (17), the Netherlands (11), the USA (10), France, Iceland and Norway (2 each), and Australia, Belgium, China, Canada, Switzerland, Italy and Ukraine (1 each). Meanwhile, 631 people acquired Slovak state citizenship over the same period, the Interior Ministry’s spokesperson Alena Koišová said.
The amendment to the State Citizenship Act, which was introduced by Robert Fico’s first government (2006-2010), states that a Slovak citizen shall be deprived automatically of his or her Slovak citizenship after acquiring the citizenship of another country. The amendment is currently being scrutinised by the Constitutional Court after opposition MP Gábor Gál (Most-Híd), along with other MPs, asked the court to examine the constitutionality of the amendment. The Constitutional Court has already decided not to suspend the amendment, pending its decision.