SHO: President's Failure to Call Referendum on Sanctions Violates Constitution

Nitra, 4 June (TASR) - Representatives of the Slovak Revival Movement (SHO) are convinced that President Peter Pellegrini violated the Constitution when he refused to declare the referendum that SHO initiated on lifting sanctions against Russia, TASR learnt at their press conference in Nitra on Wednesday. According to SHO chairman Robert Svec, the Slovak Constitution doesn't give the president the option not to declare a referendum. "It's clearly written in the Constitution that the president will announce a referendum if the condition of 350,000 signatures from citizens is met, and it has been met. Alternatively, the president can appeal to the Constitutional Court if he thinks that the subject of the referendum is not in line with the Constitution, but even that can only be judged by the Constitutional Court," he stressed. According to Svec, the laws referred to by the head of state in his decision have less legal force than the Slovak Constitution. "He can't refer to laws, he must follow the Constitution, and from our point of view this was a gross violation of the Constitution, and President Pellegrini acted and is acting unlawfully," said Svec. SHO would like to wait for a written opinion of the President's Office and then consider further action. "If there's an opportunity to appeal against this decision, we'll do so, because President Pellegrini himself in his statement also spoke about the fact that he respects the laws, the Constitution, the voice of the people and similar things, but from our point of view he violated the fundamental law of the state," added Svec. The president said on Wednesday that a referendum initiated by SHO on lifting sanctions against Russia can't be declared. He sees ambiguities in the requested question: "Do you agree that the Slovak Republic should not apply sanctions against the Russian Federation that harm Slovak citizens, sole traders and businesses?". In his view, the proposal for a referendum is not clear, definite or predictable and would therefore be unworkable in practice. am/df