The Foreign and European Affairs Ministry summoned the Hungarian Ambassador to Slovakia to explain the circumstances surrounding Wednesday's visit by the Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto to Slovakia, during which Szijjarto held talks with the coalition OLaNO MP Gyorgy Gyimesi on the Slovak State Citizenship Act without any participation from Slovak diplomacy. The chief of Slovak diplomacy Ivan Korčok (SaS nominee) claimed that he had turned down a meeting with Szijjarto over the bill, because it is an issue concerning Slovakia exclusively and asked Szijjarto to exercise prudence in light of the fact that the legislative process is still ongoing. " It's evident that this is about involving the largest number of ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia as participants in elections taking place in Hungary," said Korčok, adding that MP Gyimesi's actions stand in breach of the Government Manifesto and the coalition agreement.
The State Citizenship Act is to be amended in such a way as to allow Slovak citizens to keep their Slovak passports after accepting the citizenship of another country, provided that they have been living in the other country for a duration of at least five years. "The problem emerged in May 2010 when Hungary passed a law which purposefully extends the number of their citizens to people living abroad on an ethnic principle," said Korčok, adding that the former Slovak Government responded to this by instituting a law to strip people of their Slovak passports if they acquired the citizenship of another state.
