By EUDO Citizenship country expert Dagmar Kusa

In May 2010 the Slovak parliament adopted an amendment to its citizenship law that provides for withdrawal of Slovak citizenship in case of voluntary acquisition of a foreign nationality. This law was widely seen as a retaliation against a simultaneous reform of the Hungarian Citizenship Act that made it possible for ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries to acquire Hungarian citizenship without taking up residence in Hungary (see reports and a forum debate on EUDO Citizenship).

The new Slovak coalition government formed after elections in June 2010 announced that it would reform the law again in order to prevent the loss of Slovak citizenship by members of the Hungarian language minority.

The bill that would amend the current citizenship law has, however, still not been submitted, as the government coalition cannot agree on its content. The Hungarian coalition party Most-Híd is considering filing a claim to the Constitutional Court against the possibility of citizenship withdrawal in the current law. There has been a sizable protest against the status quo in the city of Komárno in the ethnically mixed Slovak South demanding the return of the possibility of dual citizenship.

The coalition parties agree on a return to the toleration of dual citizenship, however, the Slovak Democratic Union, Christian Democrats, Freedom and Solidarity would like to see some conditionality – either close ties of the applicant to the country where he or she is applying for citizenship and/or time limits. Conditionality is however not acceptable to the Hungarian party Most-Híd (SME, Sept. 4).

The waters were also stirred by the leader of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition E. Berényi, who refused to disclose whether he had been awarded Hungarian citizenship for which he applied in January 2011. Acquisition of Hungarian citizenship would mean automatic loss of Slovak citizenship under the current law (topky.sk, Sept. 19).