On Wednesday President Andrej Kiska stated that he still hasn't received the Constitutional Court's verdict concerning the possible referendum on the protection of the traditional family, and indicated that he would announce a plebiscite after he receives such a decision.
This comes after the Family Alliance collected over 400,000 signatures in a petition in support of a referendum on family. They asked to include four questions. The Constitutional Court on 28 October ruled that one of the four questions in the proposed referendum on family runs against the Slovak Constitution. According to the Court, the anti-constitutional item seeks one's views on the granting of special protection, rights and obligations other than to a marriage of a husband and wife. The other three questions are- on the use of the word 'marriage' only in connection with the union of a man and a woman, on preventing same-sex couples from adopting children and on preventing schools from requiring pupils to attend classes on sex education and euthanasia. These were deemed to be in line with the Constitution. President Kiska, describing himself as a "conservative person", stated that he would vote affirmatively on two questions, while he disagrees with the question concerning obligatory attendance of pupils for sex education and euthanasia lectures. As he claims elementary sex education is necessary. The Family Alliance appreciated Kiska's favourable view of the two questions, however think that Kiska perhaps did not comprehend the last question and plans to explain it to him personally.
So for now it remains unclear when the referendum on family will take place. President Andrej Kiska can announce the date only after he has received the written statement from the Constitutional Court. Kiska remarked that it seems to him that the delivery from the court is taking "a bit too long", so if he doesn't receive the verdict soon, he'll call on the Court to speed the process up. If the President announces the referendum, the vote must take place in the country no later than 90 days thereafter. It is presumed that the referendum will cost approximately 6 million EUR.
