During the four years that the Law on Citizenship has been in force, 855 people have lost their Slovak citizenship. Although the bill was adopted in response to a Hungarian law that granted citizenship to Hungarian ethnics living abroad, most Slovaks losing their citizenships did so in exchange for Czech, German, Austrian and British ones. Only 55 people gave up their Slovak citizenship in favour of Hungarian citizenship.
A group of thirty MPs has challenged the law at the Slovak Constitutional Court. It should rule this autumn whether the law is in accordance with the Constitution. The Interior Ministry has already prepared an amendment to the law on citizenship, which lets people retain Slovak one even when they acquire the citizenship of another country if they have permanent residence in that country. However, regaining citizenship for those who lost it will not be automatic. It will be necessary to meet some criteria which are still to be defined.
