Several weeks ahead of the parliamentary elections, the much-disputed Istanbul Convention is reappearing as a topic among some politicians.

Responding to calls from PM Peter Pellegrini (Smer) and Speaker Andrej Danko (SNS), President Zuzana Čaputová said she would not ask the Council of Europe to remove Slovakia from the list of signatories under the Istanbul Convention. She met both on February 10.

“The Istanbul Convention has not been ratified and no commitments thus arise from it for Slovakia,” Čaputová said in her statement. As it is not an urgent matter, she sees no reason to open a debate on the Istanbul Convention ahead of the February 29 elections.

The Istanbul Convention, which prevents and combats violence against women and domestic violence, has been misinterpreted by several church organisations as well as the Slovak National Party (SNS) in recent years. The state signed the Istanbul Convention in 2011 when Iveta Radičová served as the prime minister.