Slovakian Fidelity

Great news 

Slovakia protects marriage through a constitutional amendment

Posted on June 4, 2014 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

Today, Slovak MPs from SMER (Social-Democrats) and KDH (Christian-Democrats) voted to define marriage as a ‘unique bond between a man and a woman’ in the Constitution. Ruling party SMER agreed to the demand of opposition party KDH in exchange of their support for a judicial reform.
The support for the amendment in the chamber was overwhelming: 102 parliamentarians voted in favour of the constitutional amendment, while 18 voted against.

The Constitution was amended to make attempts to re-define marriage  less likely in the future.

This amendment seeks to go further than banning same-sex “marriages”. Its explanatory referendum specifies that “it will be impossible for the rights and duties associated with marriage to be conferred in any way other than a legally recognised union between a man and a woman”.

Although only in an explanatory memorandum, the statement seeks to outlaw any form of union for same-sex couples.

With this amendment, Slovakia follows a trend among European countries: it is the seventh EU Member State (after Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, and Croatia) to have enacted such a clarification, belying false assertions (e.g. by the ideologically biased European Court of Human Rights) that there wer a general trend towards recognition of same-sex “marriages” in Europe. In this sense, it is hoped that today’s decision will have its due impact even outside Slovakia, as it will further undermine the credibility of such assertion, which unfortunately are a recurring feature in the ECtHR’s case-law.