THE HUNGARIAN government summonedSlovakia’s ambassador to Hungary, Peter Weiss, to an official meeting in response to reports that a Slovak businessman, Oliver Boldoghy, was stripped of his Slovak passport because he had been granted Hungarian citizenship, the SITA newswire reported on November 22.
According to an amendment to the State Citizenship Act passed by the government of Robert Fico in 2010, any person who seeks and receives the citizenship of another country can automatically lose their Slovak citizenship.
The Hungarian authorities said they consider the practice “unacceptable” and are prepared to help Boldoghy, who is from Komárno, if he asks them to do so.
Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi expressed the hope that the action taken against Boldoghy was not part of the Slovak election campaign and that “it is only an extraordinary step and not a political provocation”, SITA wrote.
Representatives of the Hungarian ministry added that stripping people of their citizenship is not in accordance with the fundamental values of the EU and is only intended to intimidate ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia.
The Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected the criticism from Hungary, saying that the principle of losing one’s citizenship through voluntary acceptance of another country’s citizenship does not violate European regulations and values.
The Slovak ministry also stated that Slovakia had been trying to address the dual citizenship issue through bilateral dialogue, SITA wrote.
