On Friday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico effectively banned the transcription of same-sex marriages concluded abroad. He stated that one cannot demand the registration of something that does not exist in Slovakia’s legal system. A completely different approach from that of Donald Tusk in Poland.
Fico: the constitution is paramount
The Slovak prime minister visited a special civil registry office within the Ministry of Interior on Friday, which is the only authority in the country allowed to transcribe marriages concluded abroad.
“I fully respect the reality and situations in which same-sex couples live in partnerships. On the other hand, I must protect the constitution, which defines marriage as a unique union between a man and a woman,” the prime minister said.
According to Fico, agreement was reached with officials that current legal provisions do not allow the registration of same-sex marriages, even if such a marriage was concluded in another country.
“One cannot demand the registration of something that does not exist in our legal system,” the prime minister stated.
Tusk – in violation of the law – sanctions same-sex marriages
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, unlike his Slovak counterpart, instructed the heads of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration and the Ministry of Digital Affairs to issue a regulation that officially enabled and standardised across Poland the process of transcription (entering into Polish registers) of marriage certificates of same-sex couples concluded abroad. This decision was made in May 2026 and was a direct response by the government to earlier rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC).
While Tusk spoke extensively about the transcription of same-sex marriages concluded abroad, he did not mention that the Polish legal system does not provide for same-sex couples to obtain a divorce before a Polish court. The Family and Guardianship Code does not provide for such a possibility, as it defines marriage exclusively as a union between a woman and a man.