Coalition party Most-Hid is enraged by the plans of coalition partner KDH (Christian democrats) to slap fines on Slovaks who acquire the citizenship of another country, namely Hungary.
Most-Hid, which can be classed a Slovak-Hungarian party, was shocked when interior minister Daniel Lipsic disclosed his plan to slap hefty fines of EUR 3,300 on anyone acquiring dual citizenship without so-called ‘legitimate reasons’. The party angrily declared that it would strongly block his proposals.
This will delay the green light of parliament, which was supposed to debate changes to the State Language Act in October. The PM has requested Lispic to bring forward exact proposals, and the issue will be discussed today, 23 September, at a special government session.
The law was amended swiftly by the former government in reaction to the Hungarian law that afforded citizenship to ethnic Hungarians abroad. The Slovak law was amended so that any Slovak requesting dual citizenship would automatically lose their Slovak citizenship.
The spark for the dispute, which could ignite within the coalition, is that Lipsic also feels that the new law should respond to the Hungarian law on dual citizenship. He even said the Hungarian law did not respect international law.
Lipsic wants to propose rules to the EU obliging member states to report more on dual citizenship, because in practical terms it is quite difficult determining if someone has dual citizenship or not.
Most-Hid, which was supported by a large chunk of Hungarian Slovaks in the elections, will defend their interests, and so we could see another bump on the coalition’s path of compromise.