Plans to introduce special pension top-ups for award-winning artists were rejected by Slovenian voters in a referendum earlier this month.
The related parliamentary bill had already been passed in January this year.
It specified the conditions and terms under which artists who had won specific prizes would be able to claim an allowance – paid for by the state — on top of their pension, following a similar law passed for athletes in 2017.
It was intended to replace a similar law passed in 1974, which Slovenia’s government considered was not sufficiently precise, potentially leaving any decision on payments to the discretion of the minister of culture.
The new top-ups were to be either 50% or 100% — depending which prize the artist had won — of the difference between the pension they actually received, and the maximum pension receivable for a full 40 years of pensionable service, up to a ceiling of €3,200 per month.
However, it would not be possible to bequeath the pension top-up to beneficiaries – allowed under the existing law.
The referendum result was 92% — over 400,000 – votes against the changes, on a turnout of 26%. The turnout satisfied the legally-required quorum of at least 20% of all eligible voters supporting the winning side.
Two of the three parties in the coalition government — the Freedom Movement, and the Left — had called for voters to boycott the referendum, but this tactic ultimately backfired as supporters of the new bill stayed home, while the quorum for voting was still achieved.
The referendum was initiated by the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) — the main parliamentary opposition – which collected more than the 40,000 signatures required, and had run a campaign claiming the new rules would benefit a “privileged elite”, while many ordinary pensioners struggled to make ends meet.
It had also attacked the concept of rewarding “degenerate” art, with a controversial poster campaign featuring a photograph of artist Maja Smrekar breastfeeding a dog.
This public performance had been part of Smrekar’s K-9 topology project exploring the parallel evolution of human being and dog, which in 2018 won her the Prešeren Foundation Award – the highest Slovenian award for artistic achievement.
SDS leader Janez Janša said: “The government coalition has received a slap in the face. This is a victory for that part of the electorate in Slovenia that is aware that the country is moving in the wrong direction under the current coalition.”
Meanwhile, the government accused the SDS of using the “disingenuous” referendum as a way of starting its general election campaign a year early.
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