November, 2025 | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

10 Takeaways From Assisted Dying Referendum Whoopass

On Sunday, Slovenians rejected the law on assisted dying. When the referendum dust settled, the NO campaign of Aleš Primc and a host of other organisations pulled in a respectable 54 % of the vote amid a near-historic 41% turnout. This means they easily cleared both hurdles needed for rejection of the law. They won a majority which also represented more than 20% of all eligible voters.

The final results of the referendum vote on the law on assisted dying. — *The final referendum tally (source: DVK)*

To say that the result came as a shock to many in the YES camp would be an understatement. Going into the final days of the campaign, proponents of the law were oozing optimism backed by some very favourable polling. But then the numbers started rolling in. Pengovsky didn’t share this optimism to begin with, so here are ten takeaways from the Sunday whoopass.

Referendum On Assisted Dying

On Sunday, the good people of Muddy Hollows will vote in a referendum on assisted dying. But pengovsky, either reader might exclaim, didn’t you guys already vote on that some time ago? The answer to which is, yes, yes we did. And now we’re doing it again. Only this time shit got dead serious.

Back in June 2024, in conjunction with the EU elections in Slovenia the people voted in four referendums as well. One of those votes was on whether this sorry little excuse for a country should formalise the right to assisted dying. Somewhat surprisingly, the people supported the idea. Even more surprisingly, the coalition decided that it is a good idea to pass the law eight months before the elections. But a grand total of zero people were surprised when Aleš Primc announced (and secured) a referendum challenge.

Šutar Act: Robert Golob Knows A Good Crisis When He Sees One

Late Monday night, Slovenian parliament approved the Šutar Act. PM Robert Golob and his government drafted the law as a response to an incident in Novo mesto about three weeks ago, where a man was attacked outside a night club by one or more members of the Roma minority and later died of injuries sustained in the brawl. But it is also much more than that.

Robert Golob outlined the Šutar Act only days after the fatal incident involving Roma attackers in Novo mesto, during a tense session of the city council. The law was passed earlier this week. — *Robert Golob durint the tense session of Novo mesto city council (source: STA YouTube)*

For some time, tensions between the majority Slovenian and minority Roma populations in Dolenjska region have been running high. A combination of crime (petty and otherwise), failure of integration policies, welfare abuse and bog-standard chauvinism have turned every interaction between the two groups into a flashpoint. And then the point flashed. Bigly.