The Slovak parliament has unexpectedly passed changes to the constitution enshrining only two genders, male and female, forbidding surrogate motherhood, and introducing new rules for adopting, raising and educating children, all of which are likely to clash with the European Union standards.

“It is simple, there is only a man and a woman!” Prime Minister Robert Fico declared on Facebook prior to the vote on September 26, highlighting his and his Smer party’s turn from social democratic to national conservative politics in recent years.

As bne IntelliNews covered in January, Fico made several statements about wanting to enshrine in the country’s constitution that there are only two genders, following US President Donald Trump’s example, and building on his previous rhetoric alleging that Brussels is importing ideology incompatible with the Slovak nation.

“Thank you on behalf of all Slovaks that our constitution will protect our essence, what we are, what future [there is] for Slovakia,” the populist prime minister wrote on Facebook after the passing of the amendment, which rocked the liberal opposition and media.

Beata Balogová, the award-winning editor-in-chief of the liberal daily SME described the motion as “the last supper of the constitution”. Dominik Želinský, a well-known sociologist, countered on Facebook ironically, writing, “Now we will have only two genders in Slovakia: the Slovak one and the national one.”

Slovakia is a majority catholic country with a sizeable protestant population. The previous attempt at the constitutional amendments backed by Fico’s ruling left-right coalition failed after it fell short of securing the votes of all Christian Democratic legislators from the opposition KDH.

But in an unexpected move, legislators Rastislav Krátký and former minister of health Marek Krajčí from the ex-PM Igor Matovič's populist right-wing party Slovakia backed the constitutional motion, helping it meet the minimum quorum of 90 legislators.

Boris Zala, a founding member of Smer who left the party in 2016 and a former MEP, told bne IntelliNews in Bratislava last month that if adopted, the constitutional amendments would “change the secular nature of the state”. A political scientist, he campaigned relentlessly against the changes.

Zala said that besides the enshrining of two genders, another paragraph “defines Slovak national identity in the constitution”, while the changes also “exempt the constitution from the European law” after more than 21 years of Slovakia’s EU membership.

“The amendment will be followed by tens of legislative rules, which would change the system of education, health and the social system,” Zala argued, noting that “modern and science-based education is being moved away from the state” with the changes.

The changes also include the right to adopt children only by married couples and give parents the right to decide whether their children will take part in sexual education, state broadcaster STVR reported.

Fico, a former communist, has intensified his national conservative turn and pro-Kremlin rhetoric since coming back to power in the autumn of 2023. His cabinet, comprised of his Smer party, more moderate Hlas and ultranationalist SNS, quickly found itself at odds with the EU after it implemented sweeping changes to the judiciary, police, public media and even cultural institutions.