representatives set themselves up in Košice to take full control of Slovakia. Its membership grew from an initial 41 to 100, split evenly between Communists and non-Communists, with a Board of Commissioners to act as its executive body. Its powers were gradually restricted under the Prague Agreements of 1945–46 and following the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, when the Communists seized power, the SNR became an instrument of the Communist regime. This situation persisted until the Velvet Revolution of 1989, when the Communists lost power. A constitutional law passed in 1990 restored many of the SNR's former powers and transformed it into a democratically elected parliament, the first free elections to which were held in June 1990. It was renamed the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 1 September 1992 after a new Slovak constitution was promulgated; Slovakia became independent from Czechoslovakia four months later on 1 January 1993. Slovak National Councils abroad Four Slovak National Councils were also proclaimed abroad at various times between 1920 and 1948. The first was established by František Jehlička in Warsaw in May 1920 but failed to attract support from Slovaks abroad and was dissolved by 1922. Milan Hodža established the second in Paris on 22 November 1939, with himself as president and Peter Prídavok as secretary. Hodža sought to outline proposals for a post-war Czechoslovakian state based on the Žilina Agreement. However, it was superseded by the creation on 28 January 1940 of a Czecho-Slovak National Council, headed by Hodža, and its presence in France was ended by the country's defeat in the Battle of France six months later. The third SNR abroad was founded in London by Peter Prídavok on 31 December 1943 and advocated that Slovakia should become an independent state in a federated Central Europe. The Czechoslovak government in exile refused to recognise it and it played no part in determining Slovakia's post-war settlement. The fourth and final SNR abroad was the only one to be officially termed the Slovak National Council Abroad (, SNRvZ). It was founded in Rome in May 1948 after the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, with Karol Sidor, Konštantin Čulen, Jozef Kirschbaum and others as founder members. It sought to restore Slovak statehood and to mobilise Slovak émigrés abroad, through its branches in West Germany, Argentina, Canada, the United States and other countries where Slovaks had settled. In September 1948 it merged with Prídavok's Slovak