PARLIAMENT has rejected a proposal to introduce same-sex registered partnerships, put forward by the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party. The draft was backed by only 14 MPs. Although SaS has 11 seats in parliament, it became clear during the vote that only six of its MPs had backed the proposed legislation, the TASR newswire reported.
The draft law contained several measures supporting cohabitation of same-sex couples. Partners would, for example, have been able to learn about each other’s health conditions, represent each other in court, or become the primary beneficiary in the event of the other partner’s death.
The proposal was backed by the authors of the bill, Martin Poliačik and Lucia Nicholsonová, as well as their fellow SaS MPs Martin Chren, Daniel Krajcer, Juraj Miškov, and Peter Osuský. Also Miroslav Beblavý, Lucia Žitňanská and Magda Vášáryová from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Ján Mičovský, Peter Pollák, Mikuláš Huba and Jozef Viskupič from Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) and Rudolf Chmel of Most-Híd supported the proposal.
“I can’t believe that such retrograde opinions are in the majority among the public,” Nicholsonová said as quoted by TASR. “I believe that there will come a time when we will be able to discuss such a ‘supernormal’ topic here [in Slovakia].”
