Only 98 Signatures for Referendum on First Day

SSN is slowly losing political support, so that Zmago Jelincic said that his party `does not cooperate with marginal parties´.

The deadline for gathering 40 thousand signatures needed for the referendum in Slovenia expires on March 26, and the first results, according to data from the Slovenian “Delo”, are bad for those who want the Slovenian people to decide about the ratification of the protocol for Croatia’s entry into the NATO alliance.

On the first day only 98 signatures were collected, which means that at the current speed, by march 26 they will have collected around 2,500 signatures.

The new president of the SSN (Party of the Slovenian People), that organized the collection of the signatures, Lovro Skrinjaric, said for the media that the reason for the poor turnout is that SSN is a party outside of parliament, and that as such they do not have any source of financing. For this reason, Skrinjaric mobilised people to collect money in a short period for the successful collecting of signatures. When they collect enough money, SSN plans on developing its network of places all around Slovenia where they will be able to choose a referendum with their signature.

Not even Zmago cooperates with marginal parties

However, it seems that the SSN is slowly losing the support of its strong friends. Zmago Jelincic stressed that the Slovenian National Party will not participate in his collection of signatures, and briefly commented that his party “does not cooperate with marginal parties”.

The former premier Janez Jansa also stressed that a situation has occurred that should not have happened, and that all of those responsible pulled the right moves at the right time. Jansa also predicts that SSN, if they do not collect half of the needed signatures in half of the deadline, will most probably abort the initiative, and stresses that the movement for collecting signatures does not need so much attention.