A referendum will be held in Slovakia on 15 September. Slovak Spectator reports that the referendum was called by President Ivan Gašparovič after he received a petition containing more than 368,000 signatures. Art. 95 (1) of the Slovakian constitution states that “A referendum shall be declared by the President of the Slovak Republic upon a petition submitted by at least 350,000 citizens”. So, after Iceland previously, this is another case of popular democracy in action.

The referendum will ask six questions: whether or not television and radio licence fees should be abolished; whether MPs’ immunity should be curbed; whether the number of MPs should be reduced from 150 to 100; whether there should be a maximum price paid for cars used by Government officials; whether internet voting should be allowed; and whether the automatic right to reply by public officials should be removed.

The referendum was organised by the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party. The party gathered the signatures mainly prior to recent election and the SaS is now in government. This means that some of the questions are largely immaterial because they are part of the government’s programme. However, to my knowledge, the referendum is going ahead in this form.

Slovak Spectator also reports that, as expected, the programme of the new coalition government was approved on 10 August. The government received the support of 79 of 150 deputies. The coalition comprises the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Most-Híd. The PM is Iveta Radičová of the SDKÚ.