Referendum | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Panic! At The Right Wing Disco

Well, fuck me sideways and call me Sally. For a bunch of right wing culture war issues meant to prop up the legislative referendum on parliamentary inquiry, Sunday sure was a barn-burner. As you probably know by now the YES camp won the vote on disenfranchising third-country nationals on local level, and the one on tying welfare benefits to public work.

Of the four referendums last Sunday, the right-wing Janša government lost both key votes. By the thinnest of margins the people cast a majority vote rejecting abolishing RTV SLO fee and changing rules for parliamentary inquiry. — *(L-R) Tallies on parliamentary inquiry, RTV SLO, welfare benefits and 3rd country nationals (source)*

Crucially, however, the NO camp won the all-important vote on removing safeguards of a parliamentary inquiry and abolition of RTV SLO fee. The margins of victory are thin as fuck, but they do exist. And the resulting panic in the right wing coalition of Janez Janša suggests that his government is much shakier than he would like you to believe. Today’s shakeups and resignations in the parliament support that notion.

Culture War Referendums, Part Two

More on referendums this Sunday. Contrary to the legislative referendum (see Part One in the series), there is no turnout or quorum requirement in a consultative referendum. It’s a straight-up whichever-side-gets-more-votes type of situation.

A really sad mock-up ballot in a follow-up to the four referendums on Sunday, This time we do votes on RTV SLO, welfare benefits and voting rights of third-country nationals. It all boils down to decency. — Another mock referendum ballot. This one is even worse.

In addition, results of a consultative referendum are, as the name suggests, wholly legally non-binding. In theory, they are politically binding, but going on recent experience, a popular vote suggesting a certain policy direction is not worth a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys, if it doesn’t align with a per-existing government agenda.

Culture War Referendums, Part One

To say that Janez Janša’s ruling right-wing coalition is making a mess of things would be an understatement. Firstly, this here blog abhors using such milquetoast language, so the correct term would be incompetent twats. Secondly, despite appearances to the contrary, Janša’s minority government is shaky as fuck. In fact, judging by the last couple of weeks, his coalition partners keep picking up bad weeks to quit sniffing glue.

Slovenians will vote in four referendums this Sunday, each referendum more damaging to democratic values than the other. On the picture is a sample referendum ballot. — *A referendum ballot (photo by yours truly)*

And thirdly, whatever coherent policy they had is locked up in a referendum bid against the Logar/Vrtovec omnibus bill. And having apparently hit “empty” in their ideas tank about two weeks after taking office, the Glorious Leader and his ilk are doing the one thing they always knew how to do. Wage culture wars. Which is why the good people of Muddy Hollows will vote in four referendums this Sunday, each more damaging to democratic values than the other.

Will Zoran Janković Finally Meet His Match?

Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković is about to enter the wildest four months of his political career. On Sunday, the good people of Ljubljana (dubbed Ljubljanchans at some point on this blog) will vote in a referendum on a parking ordnance this coming Sunday. Exactly four months later, that same crowd will vote in local elections. In both cases, mayor Janković is, surprisingly (perhaps even to himself), forced to fight some rearguard action.

Zoran Jankovič and Tone Rop in a hot-mic moment, where Rop snaps at Janković, saying that if it weren't for him, Janković would never have become CEO of Mercator retail chain. — *Tone Rop being pissed off at Zoran Jankovič back in 2002 (source)*

The parking ordnance referendum simply refused to go away, despite Zoki’s legal maneuvering. In addition, he also seems to have finally drawn a worthy challenger in the autumn election. While names like Luka Mesec and Urška Klakočar Zupančič are being tested and retested as potential candidates, the one name that probably really rattled the mayor’s cage is former PM Tone Rop.

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.

Stupid Before The Storm: Mother Of All Walkbacks

Slowly, with the speed of a decrepit snail on valium, pengovsky is bringing this blog up to speed all the stupid that happened in the lull before the campaign storm. And at last, we get to take a look at the NATO near-miss that made everyone look up and ask whether Slovenian political class really is capable of handling this sovereign state thingy.

NATO and Muddy Hollows. because pengovsky couldn't be bothered with yet another picture of PM Golob to represent the mother of all walkbacks — *NATO and Muddy Hollows. because pengovsky couldn’t be bothered with yet another picture of PM Golob*

As everyone knows by now, there will not be a referendum on Slovenian NATO membership. There will not even be a referendum on defence spending resolution. In fact, six weeks after nearly sleepwalking into a clusterfuck of epic proportions, people involved are pretending like the whole thing never happened.