Slovenian same-sex marriage referendum, 2015

A referendum on a bill legalizing same-sex marriage was held in Slovenia on 20 December 2015. The bill was rejected, as a majority of voters voted against and the votes against were more than 20% of registered voters.

On 3 March 2015 the National Assembly passed a bill defining marriage as a “union of two” instead of a “union of a man and a woman.” Conservative opponents of the law, including a group called Children Are At Stake, gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue, hoping to block same-sex marriage. On 26 March, the National Assembly voted to block the referendum on the ground that it would violate the constitutional provision which prohibits popular votes on laws eliminating an unconstitutionality in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The proponents of a referendum appealed to the Constitutional Court, which on 22 October declared that the National Assembly does not have the ability to declare a referendum unconstitutional. The National Assembly thus on 4 November scheduled a referendum to be held on 20 December 2015.

Per article 90 of the Constitution a law is rejected if "a majority of voters who have cast valid votes vote against the law, provided at least one fifth of all qualified voters have voted against the law". A minimum of 343,104 voters (which makes up 20% of about 1.7 million registered voters) are required to cast a valid "no" vote for the result of the referendum to be valid.

In a 2012 referendum, 54.55% of voters rejected a law that would have expanded rights for same-sex registered partnerships.

Slovenian Catholic groups, and Pope Francis urged a "no" vote. A number of EU politicians, including Violeta Bulc called for a "yes" vote. All parties in Parliament except SDS and NSi supported a 'Yes' vote.

A poll conducted by Delo Stik in February 2015 showed that 51% of Slovenians supported the bill, which was debated in the National Assembly at the time, while 42% were against.

...
Wikipedia