BRATISLAVA, March 21, (WEBNOVINY) – The Chairman of the non-parliamentary SMK Jozsef Berenyi refused to inform, whether he has already received Hungarian citizenship. Berenyi requested it in the first week of January. Last week, the first applicants from Romania and Serbia were granted Hungarian citizenship. According to Slovakia’s state citizenship law adopted in the era of Robert Fico, individuals who receive the citizenship of Hungary, or of any other state, automatically lose citizenship of Slovakia.
Berenyi also criticized the coalition MOST-HID and its Chairman Bela Bugar, who wants to postpone the discussion on the amendment to the state citizenship law until autumn. “Autumn is just an excuse. MOST-HID does not have enough influence to convince its coalition partners. With postponing the discussion, MOST-HID is preparing the ground for explaining to its voters, why they failed to enforce fulfilling the Cabinet’s program document,” Berenyi told SITA on Monday. The ruling coalition is to fix Fico’s “anti-law,” which was adopted in response to Hungary’s dual citizenship. However, when the parliament dealt with it earlier in February, it failed to go through, which triggered a crisis in the coalition.
Berenyi also underlined that in 1997 to 2005, Slovakia was also granting its citizenship to applicants without permanent residence in the country. Those, who received their citizenship in this way, are eligible to the voting right. Berenyi also pointed out, that people with not only Slovak citizenship can become county chairmen and deputies. “It starts being a problem, when Hungary plans to introduce this,” said Berenyi. He also pointed to the fact, that the new Ministry of Economy State Secretary also has dual citizenship, being a citizen of both Slovakia and Sweden. “This is a double standard, which now also Bugar started to support,” added Berenyi.
SITA