Slovenia launches vote
on gay marriage
The country’s EU commissioner and MEPs weigh in
on the referendum.
By Ryan Heath (politico.eu, 15/12/2015)
EU politicians, including
European commissioner Violeta Bulc, are urging Slovenia to back same-sex
marriage as early voting begins Tuesday on a referendum that could overturn a
controversial marriage equality law.
If the country supports gay
marriage — as Irish voters did in May 2015
— Slovenia would break new ground, becoming the first Central European,
Slavic and post-Communist nation to do so. In contrast, more than 10
Western European countries have implemented same-sex marriage laws.
The referendum results will be
released Sunday. Voters are deciding whether to uphold a Slovenian law passed
in March that legalizes gay marriage.
Bulc, Slovenia’s member of the
European Commission, told POLITICO she filmed a video for the “Za” (Yes)
campaign with members of her team in a personal capacity, after being denied
use of the Commission’s official television studios.
While European Commission
First Vice President Frans Timmermans has been avocal advocate for marriage equality,
including through the Commission’s official communication channels, Bulc’s team
said they were rebuffed because the institution does not have a
position on the Slovenia referendum.
“I am for an open and
integrated society. A society that respects diversity … Vote Yes!” Bulc says in
the video.
Tanja
Fajon, a Slovenian MEP, has spent recent days campaigning for the yes team with
the message that “No
one can have less rights because of love.” Former Slovenian Prime
Minister Alenka Bratušek (rejected as an EU commissioner by the European
Parliament in 2014) joined Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel with a similar message.
Campaigners from MEP offices
at the European
Parliament, including a large Socialist contingent, are also on board.
In Slovenia, President Borut Pahor has backed
the law, but taken a low-profile position ahead of the vote.
The referendum’s “no” campaign
is spearheaded by groups such as “Children Are at Stake,” who argue that
the marriage equality law does not recognize the importance of motherhood and
fatherhood for the development of a child, according to its spokesperson Metka Zevnik.
Slovenians have the right to
appeal laws passed by the national parliament — as the Marriage and Family
Relations Act was in March 2015 (its purpose is to allow same-sex couples to
marry). Activists collected more than 80,000 signatures to request a referendum
on the law.
Dušan Vučko, a spokesperson
for the Slovenian electoral commission, told Delo that a minimum
of 343,104 voters (20 percent of more than 1.7 million
registered) will have to cast their vote for the result of the referendum to be
valid. More than half of those who vote will need to reject the law in order
for it to be overturned.
A 2015 Eurobarometer
survey conducted for the European Commission found that 54 percent of
Slovenians thought that same-sex marriage should be permitted throughout
Europe, while 40 percent were opposed.
A poll conducted November 30
for Delo put the “yes” and “no” camps in a statistical tie, with 42 percent in
favor and 41 against.
Slovenian lawmakers, activists
and voters have waged a 10-year, back-and-forth battle over LGBT rights.
Laws to grant increasing rights to same-sex couples have on several occasions
been defeated at the final parliamentary hurdle or ballot box, including a 2012
referendum in which 54.55 percent of voters rejected a law that would have
expanded rights for same-sex registered partnerships.
Slovenian
media report that the referendum is considered by many to be a test of support for
the ruling Modern Centre Party (SMC) of Prime Minister Miro Cerar, which backs
same-sex marriage. SMC has recently suffered a steep decline in
support in opinion polls, dropping to just 7.6 percent this week.
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