All Slovakians will be either man or woman, according to the Constitution

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Another change is that adoption of children is restricted to married heterosexual couples. Homosexual couples cannot adopt children. And surrogacy is forbidden from now on.

The changes received support from 90 of the 99 present MPs in the National Council. This is the only chamber of the unicameral parliament, which has 150 seats.

The majority of the opposition was not present during the final vote. Still, Friday’s support was surprising. It was only possible because of the support from the Christian Democrats and the Conservative Movement Slovakia.

Slovakia is joining a group of Central European countries that describe marriage in their Constitutions as a unique union of one man and one woman. Civil marriage has never been open to homosexuals in Slovakia. With the amended Constitution, this will be even more unlikely in the future.

There is also more recognition for parental rights, so that the parents decide about the sexual education of the children, and not the state or the school. Children will also have the right to know both parents.

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Another change is that the Constitution grants Slovakia’s national law precedence over EU law in “cultural and ethical matters”. This is connected with family, culture and language. Critics see this as a nationalist approach by Prime Minister Robert Fico. It has been criticised too by the authoritative Venice Commission from the Council of Europe. Also, the European Commission has been very critical of this.

According to a post on x, the organisation around the Casablance Declaration against surrogacy responded very positively to the vote in Bratislava.

ADF International posted on x about a “historic victory for biological reality [and] parental rights”.