LJUBLJANA, May 7 (Hina) - The Slovene Parliament on Friday rejected a bill that would give special status rights to citizens of other countries of Slovene origin although only half of the 150,000 emigrants have dual
citizenship.
LJUBLJANA, May 7 (Hina) - The Slovene Parliament on Friday rejected a
bill that would give special status rights to citizens of other
countries of Slovene origin although only half of the 150,000
emigrants have dual citizenship.#L#
The opposition-sponsored bill proposed that those people be recognised
as Slovenes and allowed to exercise their rights in Slovenia if they
signed a declaration saying they were of Slovene nationality and were
loyal to Slovenia.
The Parliament, dominated by a centre-left coalition, rejected the
bill with 44 votes against and 22 votes in favour.
"Slovenia is the mother country of all Slovenes and from the moral
point of view it should not regard any Slovene as a foreigner," Franc
Puskic, one of the sponsors of the bill, said before the vote.
The Government insisted that such a bill was contrary to the views of
the European Union and that it would require a lot of funds.
Opposition leader Janez Jansa said that the Government behaved towards
Slovene expatriates like "a stepmother", while his party colleague and
one of the two deputies representing the Slovene emigrant community in
Parliament, Joze Bernik, shocked members of the left-wing parties when
he referred to the Slovene Emigrants' Association as a "Communist-era
state security service".
(Hina) vm