House: MPs Adjourn Vote on Amendment to Constitution as Whole until September

Bratislava, 18 June (TASR) - MPs didn't vote on an amendment to the Constitution as a whole on Wednesday, approving an adjournment of the vote until the next regular session due to start on 9 September. The adjournment was proposed by the coalition caucuses of Smer-SD, Voice-SD and the Slovak National Party (SNS). Parliament passed a couple of amending proposals to the Constitution on Tuesday (17 June), including those sponsored by the Christian Democrats (KDH) and MPs for the Christian Union (KU). The constitutional amendment thus already contains a joint amending proposal by the coalition and KDH and KU MPs. A ban on surrogacy, and the right of a child to know its parents, i.e. the provision that the mother is a woman and the father is a man, should be thereby added to the Constitution. A proposal to define gender based on biological criteria and to strengthen parents' rights at schools was also passed on Tuesday. The House didn't approve the proposal of the coalition Voice-SD party to drop a single (nationwide) electoral district from the Constitution. KDH's proposal to strengthen conscientious objection failed to receive MPs' support, either. The coalition on Tuesday admitted that the final vote on the constitutional amendment could be postponed until September, as it doesn't have sufficient support from MPs guaranteed. Ninety votes are needed to pass a constitutional amendment. ko/df