Constitutional Court Obtains President's Motion on Referendum Question

Kosice, September 14 (TASR) – The Constitutional Court has already obtained a motion from President Zuzana Caputova, asking it to examine the constitutionality of the potential first referendum question concerning the government’s resignation, court’s spokesperson Martina Ferencova confirmed for TASR on Wednesday.

The court received the motion by email on Tuesday (September 13). “The matter will be decided within 60 days,” said Ferencova, adding that an exact date cannot be specified at the moment. The deadline began to flow on Wednesday.

It will depend on the court’s decision whether the referendum that the president will declare will have one or two questions.

After consulting several constitutional lawyers, Caputova considers the question of whether people agree that the government should resign without delay to be questionable from the point of view of constitutionality. “If the Constitutional Court finds the question to be in order, I’ll announce a referendum with both questions,” she said.

The question that will definitely appear in the plebiscite will ask the public whether it agrees that an early termination of the parliamentary electoral term can be carried out via a referendum or a resolution of Parliament. In her opinion, it is in line with the Constitution.

The two questions were recently supported by approximately 400,000 people in a referendum petition initiated by the opposition Smer-SD party. The president noted that enough signatures had been submitted, which fulfilled the prerequisite for declaring a referendum.