A total of 678 people have applied for the restoration of their Slovak citizenship with 551 of the applicants already having their Slovak passports restored, wrote the TASR press agency at the weekend. Moreover, the Interior Ministry is dealing with the remaining applications at the moment. The State Citizenship Act was adopted by the first government of Robert Fico (2006-10) in response to Hungarian legislation that made it possible for ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary to gain dual citizenship. There have been several attempts to mitigate the law since its adoption, but all have failed. As of February 2015, the Interior Ministry began returning Slovak citizenship to people who lost it after accepting foreign citizenship based on having permanent residence in the country in question. Slovak citizenship is restored by virtue of exemptions.
