THE GOVERNMENT has agreed a draft revision of the Citizenship Act, which was amended shortly before last year’s parliamentary elections by the then-government of Robert Fico. The law currently allows citizens who acquire the citizenship of another state (apart from by birth or marriage) to be stripped of their Slovak citizenship; the amendment would remove this provision.
At the same time, however, the cabinet approved a proposal by the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) to ban dual citizenship for police, army, intelligence services and security officers. Public officials who work with classified documents will also be banned from holding dual citizenship, the Sme daily reported.
MPs of the prevailingly ethnic-Hungarian Most-Híd party are expected to vote in favour of the draft, although many of them expressed reservations. Most-Híd MP Edita Pfundtner said the draft law would punish state employees, Sme wrote.
The coalition cannot be sure of getting all its MPs to vote for the law when it is presented to parliament, as four Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) MPs grouped in the Ordinary People faction have said they will only support an amendment if it restricts dual citizenship to people who stay, study, are employed or conduct business in a foreign country for at least two years, or have close family ties to another country.
Since the exact wording of the draft revision has yet to be released, coalition deputies are still waiting to express their opinions, the SITA newswire reported.
