With more than 90 percent of the ballots having been counted, we can now be certain that all three laws that the voters were deciding on at Sunday’s referendum will be enacted. Support for the amendment to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act and the amendments to the Long-Term Care Act exceeded 60 percent, with 40 percent voting against the two. Support for the amendments to the Government Act was even lower, at around 55 percent, with 45 percent voting against it. Activist Nika Kovač, director of the Institute of the 8th of March (“Inštitut 8. marec”), called all those who voted against the laws “evil.”
“I hope we have shown once again that we, the citizens, are here to defeat evil,” said Nika Kovač in a statement for the news programme 24ur. Professor and former Minister of Education, Žiga Turk, responded to her statement by writing: “Really, almost half of the citizens – 40 percent – are evil?”
On Sunday, the voters were deciding on whether to implement the amendments to the Government Act, the amendments to the Long-Term Care Act, and the amendments to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act, as adopted by the National Assembly. Although it is now clear that all three laws have received enough support at the referendum and will come into force soon, we should not simply dismiss the 40 percent of those who went to the polls and voted against the three laws, and nobody should call these people evil, either. Apparently, Nika Kovač is learning from the best.
Urška Klakočar Zupančič, the Speaker of the National Assembly and Vice-President of the largest coalition party – the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje svoboda), also declared a great victory and expressed how happy she is that she is “living in a country where the people have spoken in favour of democracy and freedom.” Even though the results are far from being a great victory – they only show just how divided our nation really is.
Sara Kovač
