Once More Unto The Referendum Breach, Dear Friends

Apologies for abusing The Bard, but the upcoming referendum votes do have a tinge of Shakespearean drama to it. Or maybe it is the Shakespearean length of this post. Who knows. To quote Hamlet, fuck it. Going to the polls for the third time in as many weeks, and for the fifth time in eight months, is not a regular occurrence in Muddy Hollows.

Shepherd boy with flute symbolises RTVSLO. The fate of the public broadcaster in Slovenia will be determined on a referendum on Sunday.
Shepherd boy with flute, by Zdenko Kalin, symbolising RTVSLO since forever. But for how long? (source)

And yet, this Sunday might prove to be just as crucial as the April parliamentary election was. For those of you living under a rock for the past few months, Slovenians are about vote in three different referendums on Sunday. There is a vote in the Government Act, on the law on elderly care, and the law on RTVSLO, the public broadcaster. A fucking cornucopia of direct democracy if there ever was one. But there is a catch. Because of course there is.

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It Ain’t Over Till The Primc Of Darkness Sings

Remember how this blogger wrote that the story about same-sex weddings and adoptions is not completely over yet? Well, I hate to be an I-told-you-so. But I fucking did tell you so. That said, the latest (if not greatest) in bigoted proceduralism comes from a source pengovsky overlooked: the National Council.

Aleš Primc, the Primc of Darkness, is not giving up in trying to prevent same-sex weddings and adoptions.
Aleš Primc of Darkness during a parliamentary debate on Family Code (source)

The initial worry was that the Primc of Darkness would want to call another referendum . He did, in fact, whip up enough signatures to kick-off the procedure. However, there’s the little matter of Artice 90 of the constitution, We will deal with that in due course. But first, let’s take a look-see how the National Council demonstrated once more that it must be abolished, post haste.

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How Voters Poured Cold Water On Janša Government

In what can only be described as a landslide, voters in Muddy Hollows on Sunday rejected amendments to the Waters Act by an overwhelming margin. Voter turnout reached 45 percent, the highest in recent years. 86 percent voted against and only 13 voted in favour of the law. The voters effectively doused the government of Janez Janša in cold water.

A row of posters calling for rejection of the controversial Waters Act, urging people that the fate of fresh water is in their hands.
Posters calling for rejection of the controversial law (photo by yours truly)

The proposed changes to the legislation were fairly technical. But they were controversial enough to galvanise the opposition, a wide array of experts and – crucially – the civil society. The referendum was also the first chance for the electorate to show how they really felt about the Glorious Leader and his administration. And show they did. By flipping them a giant finger.

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Chemin De re-Fer-endum

As the world watches the Teutonic Vote unfold today there’s another, albeit slightly less dramatic ballot taking place as the good people of Muddy Hollows are registering their preference in a referendum on the second rail track of the Divača-Koper railway.


(source)

Now, pengovsky wrote this one up some-place else (here’s an awkward and sometimes unintentionally profound Google translation) so suffice it to say here this is the sort of infrastructure project politicos usually foam at the mouth for. You know: big constructions with big machinery and big price tags where a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking he or she waded into a Freudian clinic.

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Oxi


… and then, after the dust had settled, after placards had peeled away and the international clamour dissipated and supporters from foreign lands went home, when hangovers were cured and the euphoria subsided, when there was nothing more to say that hadn’t been said a million times over, the people of Greece were left to pick up the pieces all by themselves…