By adopting an amendment to legislation concerning dual-citizenship status for ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary, Hungary has clearly breached the principles of the agreement on good neighbourly relations and friendly co-operation between Slovakia and Hungary, said Richard Sulík, the chairman of the Freedom and Solidarity party (SaS) on May 26, as reported by the TASR newswire.
However, Sulik insisted that the escalation of this issue in the sensitive pre-election period has only played into the hands of certain political parties which want to cover up their scandals and problems.
Slovak MEP Monika Flašíková-Beňová (Smer) labelled the amendment on dual citizenship approved by the Hungarian parliament as pointless provocation, as quoted by TASR.
People in Slovakia who lose their Slovak citizenship after receiving their Hungarian citizenship will not have any problems if they abide by Slovak laws. If they don’t do that, however, they may be expelled from the country, Slovak National Party (SNS) chairman Ján Slota said.
Problems in Slovak-Hungarian relations will not be resolved by adopting a counter-law to the Hungarian amendment on dual citizenship, “as we’re only entering a series of problems that have been created by the ‘nationalist and neo-Nazi’ government in Hungary”, said Vladimír Mečiar, the chairman of the co-ruling Movement for Democratic Slovakia, during parliamentary discussion.
The prospect of having the Hungarian bill on dual citizenship changed through intervention by European diplomacy is quite unlikely, Slovak MEP Anna Záborská of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) said. She views the legislation passed by the Hungarian Parliament as malicious but does not agree with Slovakia adopting retaliatory measures either.
Ethnic-Hungarian MPs who intend to apply for Hungarian citizenship are abandoning their voters by such a decision, said Most-Hid party vice-chair Zsolt Simon.
According to Mikuláš Dzurinda, the chairman of the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union party (SDKÚ) the passing of the proposed amendment is likely to create a new minority in Slovakia – people who live in the country but are exclusively holders of Hungarian citizenship.
The Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) views the amendment to the Slovak Citizenship Act which passed in Parliament as undemocratic and unconstitutional. The party is therefore ready to appeal to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in an attempt to have the legislation revoked.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
