Svobodna Dnevnik

[Hadash]

El Correo Internacional

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Keszaria: National Assembly passes controversial identity law
By: Mauricio Kovács-Tomillo
Published: Elva 28, 1582


Keszarian Senate will discuss the law approved by the National Assembly, but it is expected that it will be passed without major amendments.

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The National Assembly has passed today the "Keszarian Identity Registration Act", which was deemed controversial and unnecessary by some critics. The law, which had the support of 202 of 299 MPs, establishes a "Keszarian identity certificate", for descendants of Keszarian citizens or ethnic Keszarians who live in nearby countries but have no Keszarian citizenship.

Registration will allow those foreign citizens to visit Keszaria without the need of a visa, easier access to a permit of residency in the Keszarian Republic, access to social welfare and education and cultural rights in Keszaria which were not granted to non-citizens before, and access to some jobs in state-owned institutions. It is believed that 2 million ethnic Keszarians could be available to this identity certificate in nearby countries such as Carpathia, Azreae, Lanlania, Assaria, or Ceribia.

However, such identity certificate should not be confused with a national identity card or dual citizenship, as those with the new identity certificate wouldn't have officially the Keszarian citizenship and all the rights associated to it, although it would open an easier and quickly access to citizenship compared to other non-citizens. While the preamble of the "Keszarian Identity Registration Act" established that those who are granted the "identity certificate" will be "considered as sons and daughters of the Keszarian nation", the government claims that it just a "rhetoric device...with no official legal status" besides those actual rights granted by the law.

The approval of the law was a demand of the National People's Party, after negotiations between the ruling Keszarian Democratic Movement and the opposition Civic Democratic Party for the passing of the 1583 national budget collapsed several weeks ago. Although some KDM candidates showed some restrained support to such legislation during the last electoral campaign, it was never part of the KDM platform and many observers were skeptical of the agreement could be reached. However, the government was not willing to such legislative failure, as the ruling party had promised to raise pensions before 1583. Vice President Gyöngy Székély is said to have played an important role in the negotiations, despite the law was not as ambitious as the National People's Party demanded.

The law was passed in the National Assembly with the support of Keszariak Democratic Movement and National People's Party, along the support of a few MPs of the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party. The opposition Civic Democratic Party decided to vote against -although some of their MPs were absent-, while the centrist Freedom Party decided to abstain, considering it "an unnecessary law".

President Géza Békésy has declared that the legislation will improve the cultural rights and social well-being of many who consider themselves "emotional and culturally linked with our nation...very often with relatives in our republic", but who found themselves "with absurd bureucratic obstacles", granting them a chance to study, work, or simply visit the Keszarian Republic. "From that point of view", he argued, "this a fair and reasonable legislation" which he hoped that will "enrich our nation from both an economic and cultural perspective".

Minister of Foreign Affairs Szabolcs Haraszti has denied that this law could create "nationalistic discrimination" between citizens and non-citizens of first, second, and third class, as some critics have denounced. "The law does not establish any requisite of ethnicity, religion, or even language", Haraszti argued, "so I can't understand where this absurd claim comes from...Anyone who fulfills the objective requisites established by the law could access to the identity certificate, independently of their ethnic or even linguistic background".

Embassies and consulates of the Keszarian Republic will offer free information to those interested about applying the Keszarian identity certificate, as soon as the law enters in force officially, Haraszti explained. A detailed "Q&A brochure" in six languages can already be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Keszarian Republic.