By: Dr Vinko Gorenak
The referendum on poisoning elderly and sick people is behind us, and there has been more than enough time to assess the events that led to a result which, for me, is promising. At times it already seemed to me that Slovenian common sense was on the verge of having to be sent to palliative care, but the referendum result convinces me that common sense in Slovenia is still healthy and that it can even prevail over reprehensible far-left ideology and everything that comes with it. This can especially happen in the National Assembly elections in March 2026.
In my articles in the magazine you are reading, I strive to be objective. I often criticise Robert Golob, but this time I must offer him high praise for his words. You heard that right, I am not referring to my acquaintance who is also named Robert Golob, but to the current Prime Minister Robert Golob. You may be wondering what good he has done. Well, the real Robert Golob confronted the real Robert Golob. In football jargon, one would say that he scored a decisive own goal against his own team, the coalition. I hope he continues like this until the parliamentary elections.
During the pre-referendum campaign on the law on poisoning the incurably ill, he decisively contributed to the downfall of his own law. He said that those who have living but severely ill relatives are unlucky because they have to take care of them. That sentence probably drove to the referendum even those who would otherwise have stayed at home or voted in favour of the law. Parents, grandparents, or other relatives who are still alive, even if incurably ill, are a gift from God and not misfortune for those who care for them in one way or another. So thank you, Robert Golob, for helping bring down your law on poisoning incurably ill people.
Let us look at a few more details. Aleš Primc had to collect 40,000 signatures certified at administrative units in order to call a referendum. That is no small feat, and everyone who has tried and failed knows this well. One such case involves more than 25 trade unions and civil organisations that, at almost the same time, were collecting signatures for a referendum on the Pension and Disability Insurance Act. They collected only 11,000. Primc, however, managed to collect well over 40,000 signatures. It is true that this time, perhaps for the first time, all religious communities in Slovenia became involved, calling on their members to sign for the referendum and later to vote against the law. This probably also contributed to voters rejecting the law.
A day or two before the referendum, I spoke with a colleague. She asked me what I thought, whether the referendum would succeed or not. I was sceptical, especially because of published opinion polls that did not indicate success, that is, that the law would be rejected. She, however, confidently said that the polls were manipulated. Today we know this is true. Agencies that create public opinion rather than measure it claimed that two thirds of people would support the law and one third or fewer would oppose it. The left-wing political mouthpiece called Mladina tried to convince us that almost 60 percent of people would support the law and a little over 28 percent would oppose it. The same applies to Ninamedia and Mediana. Reality, however, was completely different: more than 53 percent of people opposed the law, and just over 46 percent supported it.
Common sense therefore prevailed. Common sense can also prevail in the parliamentary elections in March 2026 and consequently sweep away the harmful Golob government. I am further convinced of this by looking at the map of electoral districts, showing where common sense won and where it lost. It lost only in the Ljubljana Centre electoral district, while it won in all the others. Let us hope it also wins in the parliamentary elections in March 2026.