In Denmark, a referendum on the Unified Patent Court will be held in conjunction with the EP election at the 25 May. A 5/6 majority is needed in parliament if sovereignty is to be transferred without an referendum. Neither DF nor Enhedslisten could be convinced to vote in favour, so now we will have a referendum. The no-side not only needs the majority of the votes in the referendum, they should also make up at least 30 % of all eligible voters. If both of these requirements are not reached, sovereignty will be transferred.
The latest polling showed these results, but not much debate has happened yet:
Do you think there should be a referendum about this question?
40.6 % yes, 43.5 % no, 15.9 % don't know
How would you vote in such a referendum?
41.7 % yes, 19.5 % no, 12.7 % blank vote, 26.1 % don't know.
I think it will be hard for the no-side to reach the required number of votes, but it is always difficult to poll referendums before the real debate about the question. It is hard to predict how the referendum will affect the EP elections. It already seems that the yes-parties will use this to depict DF as someone who just says no to everything European out of principle, even when it's something which makes life easier for corporations and innovators. DF's main argument so far is the parasite argument: Danish companies would be able to get the unified patent covering the other countries anyway and then we can keep our own patents in Denmark and decide about them ourselves. Enhedslisten/The People's movement against the EU have mainly talked about the risk of many more software patents being given in a Common Unified Patent.
The no side needs at least 30% of Registered Voters? Why not the yes side?
