SaS Seeks to Entrench EU and NATO Membership in Slovak Constitution

Bratislava, 27 November (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party has proposed enshrining Slovakia's membership of the EU and NATO in the Constitution, with a group of SaS MPs submitting a constitutional amendment to this effect to the House, MP Vladimira Marcinkova (SaS) told TASR.TV in an interview on Thursday. "If the amendment passed, it would be far harder to take Slovakia out of the Union. Today it can be done, for example, through a referendum. After this amendment, that would no longer be enough, and a constitutional law would also be required [needing 90 MP votes out of 150, instead of simple majority - ed.note]," she said. According to Marcinkova, as Voice-SD presents itself within the coalition as a pro-European party, the proposal will force it to show how genuine that pro-European stance truly is. A previous constitutional amendment drafted by Smer-SD divided the opposition on values, as the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and several other opposition MPs supported it. Marcinkova doesn't believe that this voting pattern will be mirrored in reverse for the SaS proposal. "We just want to strip Voice-SD of its pretence because we know it won't defend any European values," stated Marcinkova. mf/df