Slovenia is a water-rich country.

This is also reflected in the national flag.

To distinguish the white-blue-red tricolor from that of other Slavic states such as Serbia and Russia, the Slovenes added a coat of arms that shows a wave under a mountain range.

The small east-central European country stretches from the Triglav massif to the Adriatic Sea.

Niklas Zimmermann

Editor in politics.

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Prime Minister Janez Janša's Twitter profile is also decorated with a picture of an emerald green mountain river. But of all things the issue of water, which is symbolically and emotionally charged in Slovenia, inflicted a painful defeat on the Slovenian head of government just ten days after the start of the Slovenian EU Council Presidency.

In a referendum on Sunday, 86.6 percent of the electorate voted against an amended water law by the government that it had already passed in March. Because 46.2 percent of all eligible voters have voted and this is above the minimum turnout of twenty percent, the referendum is binding. The law thus loses its validity. “We need 340,000 votes,” the broad alliance of ecologically and feminist groups had previously posted on green stickers in the capital Ljubljana. This appeal was more than just heard: More than 780,000 Slovenes cast their votes.

The controversial change in the law would have made it possible to privatize land on the banks.

Opponents mobilized before the vote with the cry: “The fate of water is in our hands.” They feared that the law would create new tourist facilities on the coast, on lakes and on mountain rivers such as the Soča, which are popular with kayakers and rafting operators to be stamped on the ground.

The opponents organized in the "movement for drinking water" were particularly disturbed by a proposed change, according to which "public infrastructure" could be built on the banks.

What that meant was clear in their reading: restaurants, shops, streets and parking lots could be built in the actually protected areas, and the drinking water could be polluted.

Some see the result as a vote of no confidence

The result on Sunday is astonishing with its clarity. In none of the 88 electoral districts did more than 25 percent vote for the law presented by the government in Ljubljana. It is true that the rejection in the more left-wing and liberal capital was higher than the average. But the result of the vote does not allow any interpretation according to which ecologically motivated city dwellers have outvoted the periphery, which is dependent on tourism income. All electoral districts, which are located on the only 46 kilometers long Slovenian Adriatic coast, rejected the amendment with more than 90 percent of the votes against.

Some see the referendum not only as a dispute over an ecological issue, but also as a general vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Janša, who is known as a verbal daredevil and admirer of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators called for his resignation in May.

The Slovenian political scientist Marko Lovec from the University of Ljubljana said in an interview with the FAZ that Janša's government currently has "very little support".

Janša does not want to admit the crushing defeat

Many controversially discussed steps such as the funding freeze for the state news agency STA and a selective approach to pandemic control have also mobilized centrist voters and non-political citizens against the government. On the other hand, many localities have had concrete experiences with environmental pollution and industrial emissions. Janša was recently heavily criticized for deficits in the rule of law by the groups in the European Parliament, with the exception of the right-wing forces.

But the Slovenian Prime Minister does not want to back down after the crushing defeat. On Sunday evening Janša announced vigorously on Twitter: “Do you know any left-wing government that has resigned after a lost referendum?” With such “mainstream monopoly media”, Janša wrote, one could not expect miracles at the ballot box. The right-wing conservative head of government made it clear that an early end of his government, which has split Slovenian society in an unprecedented manner in just 16 months, is out of the question.