Ivan Novotny and Metod Spacek got married in Austria in 2020. They live in Slovakia, where they’re raising a son. Slovakia won’t put their marriage on the books.
In September, they sued the civil registry, AFP reported Oct. 15. Both previously worked at Slovakia’s foreign ministry and are active in opposition parties.
They’d asked the registry to record the marriage. They waited nine months, which they say blew past the legal deadline for a decision. In August, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok signed the letter saying no.
What the EU Court of Justice Said About Same-Sex Marriage
The EU court’s Nov. 25, 2025 ruling concerned a Polish couple who married while living in Germany. It requires recognition when EU citizens exercise free-movement rights and establish or strengthen family life abroad. It does not require countries to perform same-sex marriages domestically.
Slovak lawyer János Fiala-Butora has argued EU law comes first, Slovak public radio reported in July, when the Interior Ministry said it would not register same-sex marriages from abroad.
Robert Fico’s Government Says Slovak Law Comes First
Prime Minister Robert Fico isn’t budging. “The registration of same-sex marriages is not possible… as it is non-existent under Slovak law,” he said in June. “We’d look like fools in our own eyes if such a record was achieved.”
Slovakia wrote marriage as a man-and-woman union into its constitution in 2014. Last year it went further, adding that sex can’t be changed, limiting adoption almost entirely to married couples and saying Slovakia’s “sovereignty” on “cultural and ethical questions” beats EU law. The European Commission opened legal action against Slovakia over that in November 2025.
Martin Macko of the Inakost Initiative, a Slovak LGBTQ+ group, told AFP that other couples are thinking about suing, including at the European Court of Human Rights.
No hearing date had been set when AFP reported on Oct. 15. The couple said they plan to stay in Slovakia, but might leave with their son if Fico wins another term.
“LGBTQ people would not be safe,” Novotny said.
