THE SLOVAK government is not pleased that the Hungarian parliament is planning to discuss a revision to its dual citizenship legislation at its first scheduled session on May 14.
“I’m sure that it will be received [by Slovakia] as an unwise motion and an unfortunate start for the new parliament and new government of Hungary,” said Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák at a press conference after meeting Hungarian Foreign Minister-designate János Martonyi. Lajčák added that it can be expected that Slovakia will turn to international institutions to raise its objections and concerns about such dual citizenship, the SITA newswire wrote.
Martonyi said the purpose of the suggested revision is to eliminate discrimination against Hungarians living in countries surrounding Hungary and to give them the same opportunities enjoyed by all other Hungarians living elsewhere in the world, SITA wrote.
“There have already been some draft recommendations on their part and I suppose that the Slovak side took into account the opinions of international organisations by around 50 percent,” Martonyi said, referring to Slovakia’s State Language Act, which Hungary complained about to international organisations.
In response to the upcoming discussion in the Hungarian parliament the Slovak authorities summoned Slovakia’s Ambassador to Hungary, Peter Weiss, for consultations about the issue, the spokesperson of the Slovak Foreign Ministry, Peter Stano, told the TASR newswire.
Prime Minister Robert Fico said that Slovakia will regard a revision in the dual citizenship legislation in Hungary to be a security risk and that he will immediately request a review of any such change by the high commissioner for minorities of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
