Damjan Lajh

The Slovenian EU Accession Referendum: A Cat-and-Mouse Game

This account reviews the background to, the campaign and the result of the Slovenian EU accession referendum. The authors ascertain that the ‘yes’ campaign was outstandingly well organised and synchronised, in stark contrast to the ‘no’ campaign, which was poorly organised and came across as representative of a narrow set of interests. Irrespective of this contrast, the large victory (almost 90 per cent) of the ‘yes’ camp was unexpected (as well as the relatively low turnout of 60.4 per cent). The two most important reasons for such a high level of support for the EU in the accession referendum can be traced back to the broad consensus among the political and social elite and the reorientation of the most well-known anti-EU actors to the NATO accession referendum which was held simultaneously. For this reason, account is taken of the Slovenian NATO accession referendum, but only to the extent that it influenced the campaign and result of the EU referendum.

The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia: An Apparent or Real Impact?

This account deals with the characteristics of and developments in the party system of Slovenia, applying to them Ladrech’s (2002) perspectives on the possible impacts of Europeanization processes on national party politics. It directs attention to the accession referendum in 2003 and three national elections — two national parliamentary elections (2000 and 2004) and the first elections to the European Parliament in 2004. In the Slovenian case there are some reasons to believe that the EU has had some impact on the nature of party politics, especially at the end of the 1990s when certain (more or less symbolic) questions arose in the process of negotiating for full EU membership. There is also evidence that the EU is gradually and increasingly exerting an influence on domestic policy issues and national actors.