The Office of the President of the Slovak Republic received a petition for a referendum on the non-application of sanctions against Russia in Brussels

Bratislava – Representatives of the extra-parliamentary party Slovak Movement for Renewal (SHO) submitted a petition from citizens to the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic on Monday, requesting the declaration of a referendum on whether representatives of the Slovak Republic should oppose the adoption of sanctions against the Russian Federation in Brussels. They managed to collect nearly 400,000 signatures, TASR reports.

“The Office of the President of the Slovak Republic will handle the petition sheets in accordance with the law,” responded the communication department of the president’s office.

The organizers of the petition are asking President Peter Pellegrini to declare a referendum with the question: Do you agree that the Slovak Republic should not impose sanctions against the Russian Federation that harm Slovak citizens, entrepreneurs, and business owners?

“If the Slovak government spoke one way and acted the same way in Brussels, this petition would not have had to arise,” said SHO leader Róbert Švec, adding that in Brussels, government representatives vote the opposite of what they say at home in Slovakia.

If the referendum is valid, it will be, according to him, a strong mandate for the Slovak government to negotiate in Brussels about why the Slovak Republic does not want to impose sanctions and not vote for them. According to Švec, the referendum cannot dictate to the prime minister how to act specifically, but the prime minister cannot ignore the will of the citizens. Therefore, they want to exert pressure on negotiations in Brussels through the referendum. They claim that sanctions against Russia harm Slovakia in the form of significant economic losses. They refer to estimates that speak of billions of euros.

The SHO leader expects the president to declare the referendum and not dismiss it. “Also considering that in the past, when he was not yet the president of the Slovak Republic, he held the opinion that sanctions against Russia harm us as a state,” he said about Pellegrini. Švec claims that the initiative is also supported by the head of the coalition SNS Andrej Danko and MEP and leader of the extra-parliamentary Republic Milan Uhrík.

According to the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, the president declares a referendum if at least 350,000 citizens request it through a petition. The head of state must declare it within 30 days of receiving the citizens’ petition. Before declaring the referendum, the president may submit a proposal to the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic to decide whether the subject of the referendum is in accordance with the constitution or constitutional law. The results of the referendum are valid if more than half of the voters participated and if the decision was made by a majority of the participants in the referendum. (May 5)