San Marino referendum - 26th September 2021

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I also now feel an urge to start a San Marino politics thread, but alas, I've just found out I missed the administrative elections there for twenty days. I'll try to cover its 'glorified municipal politics' next time they have a general election or a referendum though.

The opportunity has now come because San Marino will hold a referendum this September. I hoped for a fun and light topic, but alas, we can't have nice things, and so the referendum is about legalizing abortion.

I am actually surprised abortion is currently illegal in San Marino, but I am also kind of surprised this is a topic at all for a polity of 30,000 people. Apparently there is one hospital in the republic. I would imagine plenty of Sanmarinese use Italian healthcare services as well, but I am not really informed.

For more detail, the question asked is the following: "Are you in favour of allowing the woman to voluntarily terminate the pregnancy within the twelfth week of gestation, and also later in case of danger to the woman's life or in case of fetal anomalies or malformations entailing a grave risk for the woman's physical or psychological health?". The circumstances and limits set by this proposal would, unsurprisingly, be functionally identical to those of Italian law.

Considering that San Marino has had a historical left wing slant, I would expect the referendum to pass, although I suspect it is more religious than the surrounding areas of Italy. Other data that may or may not be relevant are that the Sanmarinese Christian Democratic Party - unlike the Italian Christian Democracy - still exists and regularly takes around 30% of the votes, and that in 2019 a referendum to confirm the expansion of the anti-discrimination law to cover sexual orientation as well passed with 71%.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I have a hard time imagining a referendum of this kind not passing in pretty much any part of non-ex-communist, non-Vatican City Europe. The condition that the fetal anomaly has to entail a risk to the mother's health rather than being an indication for abortion on its own is an interesting one, although I suspect it'll end up being interpreted very broadly in actual medical practice.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

This is of course completely irrelevant to the abortion referendum, but since this is the only thread dedicated to our fellow micronation that I know of, I would like to use it to congratulate San Marino for winning its first ever Olympic medals, primarily courtesy of trap shooter Alessandra Perilli. Cheers!

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

This thread has been lacking in updates for various relatively obvious reasons but I think I am now able to make a substantive post so here I am.

- Reliable polling in a jurisdiction of 30,000 is almost inexistent, so we can forget about that.
- Searching for and interpreting news of endorsements and support is complicated, especially since the Sanmarinese party landscape is far from straightforward.
- That said I would assume as a rough rule that the Christian Democrats would be against and most other parties, especially the more leftist ones and definitely Movimento Civico R.E.T.E. which is one of the promoters of the referendum, would be for.
- I have found a double interview with both a No campaigner and a Yes campaigner on Italian news, which caught my attention. It was particularly interesting that the former accused the referendum proposal of creating actually laxer rules than the Italian law, to which the latter scoffed that the ballot just asks whether abortion should be legalized.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Today’s the day! Polls should be closing around now, right?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Today’s the day! Polls should be closing around now, right?

Yes, the polls have already closed. Turnout is apparently reported to be 41.1% (with a massive gap between voters in San Marino and voters abroad) - not that it particularly matters since there is no quorum. We'll likely have the results in short.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Today’s the day! Polls should be closing around now, right?

Yes, the polls have already closed. Turnout is apparently reported to be 41.1% (with a massive gap between voters in San Marino and voters abroad) - not that it particularly matters since there is no quorum. We'll likely have the results in short.

Oof, that's pathetic. Does San Marino normally have low turnout? You'd expect a microstate to have better civic culture.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Today’s the day! Polls should be closing around now, right?

Yes, the polls have already closed. Turnout is apparently reported to be 41.1% (with a massive gap between voters in San Marino and voters abroad) - not that it particularly matters since there is no quorum. We'll likely have the results in short.

Oof, that's pathetic. Does San Marino normally have low turnout? You'd expect a microstate to have better civic culture.

Recent referenda have had very similar turnout levels, yes. You have to consider that this is the average of turnouts in the sixties among voters in San Marino and turnouts in the single digits among voters abroad, who are a lot.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

In any case, the results are in and while I am not surprised that Yes is winning, I did not expect such a landslide - it appears that the referendum has won with more than three quarters of the votes. The official site (http://www.referendum.sm/refweb/) is showing 77.28% for Yes and 22.72% for No, which should be definitive although I am not completely sure.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

A great victory for Sammarinese women!