Married in Austria, not recognised at home: gay couple sues Slovakia

In Slovakia, a same-sex couple has sued the civil registry because the state will not register their marriage concluded in Austria. Lawyers and former foreign ministry officials Ivan Novotný (31) and Metod Špaček (51) married in Austria in 2020, news agency AFP reported from Bratislava on 15 October. The refusal came in August in a letter signed by Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok – after a nine-month wait, longer than the legal deadline. The two filed their lawsuit in September; no hearing date has been set. According to the Austrian magazine GGG.at, citing The Guardian, a radio presenter at public broadcaster STVR is also taking action against the authorities together with his husband; the two married in Hainburg an der Donau in 2023.

The plaintiffs rely on a ruling by the EU Court of Justice from November 2025 in the case of a Polish couple who had married in Berlin. Under it, EU states must recognise a same-sex marriage concluded in another member state if the partners exercised their freedom of movement there and built a family life; they are not required to introduce same-sex marriage at home. Slovakia's constitution has defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman since 2014. A 2025 amendment declares national sovereignty on cultural and ethical questions to take precedence over EU law – the European Commission launched legal action against it in November 2025. Prime Minister Robert Fico said in June that registering same-sex marriages was not possible as they do not exist under Slovak law.

"We don't want to feel like second-class citizens," Novotný told AFP. Špaček said "the sheer politicisation of a routine legal act" had stunned him. Slovakia offers neither marriage nor registered partnerships to same-sex couples. In September the Constitutional Court rejected a 2023 petition seeking legal protection for non-marital families; according to Martin Macko of the Inakosť Initiative, it nonetheless recognised a state obligation under European law to provide some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples.