Slovenes Reject Renewed Residency Rights for Former Minorities

Ninety-four percent of those voting in Slovenia's 4 April referendum rejected a government-sponsored bill to retroactively restore residency rights to about 18,000 members of ethnic minorities who lost those rights in 1992, Reuters reported. The referendum is valid and binding regardless of the turnout, which was 31.45 percent. Several conservative parties demanded the vote, arguing that paying compensation to those "erased" from residency rolls in the years following the 1991 declaration of independence would be too expensive. Most of the "erased" are fellow former Yugoslavs, whom many Slovenes regard as poor Balkan cousins who failed to show sufficient loyalty to independent Slovenia. Supporters of the law and opponents of the referendum called the 4 April vote a victory for xenophobia and injustice. Backers of the referendum said that the government has, in effect, lost a confidence test.