Voters in Slovenia have apparently rejected a law on assisted voluntary ending of life in a referendum held on Sunday.
With almost 95 percent of ballots counted, 340,789 voters voted against the law, and according to the latest data, opponents needed at least 339,205 votes to reject the law.
53.04 percent of voters voted against the law. Opponents of the law also managed to reach the quorum required for rejection, according to partial unofficial results of the majority of ballots counted and published by the National Election Commission.
Voter turnout in the referendum was around 40 percent.
The final and confirmed results of the referendum, as reported by local media, will only be known after December 4th.
Aleš Primc, the initiator of today’s referendum, stated that compassion, justice and solidarity won in the referendum. According to him, Slovenia has decided for life and rejected the government’s reforms of healthcare, pensions and social protection, which he considered to be based on death.
He added that the culture of life has defeated the cult of death. He assessed that with the victory in the referendum, everyone, especially the sick, disabled and pensioners, will be able to spend the Advent and Christmas holidays in peace. Primc thanked everyone who contributed to the victory of life in Slovenia.
In July, the parliament of this member of the European Union passed a law that would allow terminally ill people to inject themselves with a substance that will end their lives, provided that all treatment options have been exhausted and there is no chance of recovery.
The legal act caused a series of controversies in the country, and its opponents managed to secure a second referendum on the issue in two years. In a non-binding referendum in 2024, 55 percent of voters supported the right to assisted dying.
In order for the law to be suspended, a majority of those who voted in the referendum would have had to say “no” and at least 20 percent of the 1.7 million eligible voters had voted.
If the law had remained in force, Slovenia would have joined several European Union countries that have already adopted similar laws, including Switzerland and Austria.
