Slovenia faced a further backsliding in democracy/autocratisation process in 2021 as well as a hung National Assembly. Still, the minority government was stable and managed to pass many laws, largely due to the support of MPs from DeSUS, who often even acted against the will of the party's central bodies. However, one law was challenged by voters at referendum. An alliance of NGOs was able to attract 46 per cent of voters to the polls, with the outcome that amendments to the law on water were overwhelmingly rejected. The government encountered several public protests, including violent ones, and despite the public's huge disappointment – only around a mere 20 per cent of voters assessed the government's work as (very) positive in 2021 and just 14 per cent believed that Slovenia was going in the right direction – the opposition was unable to bring pressure to bear to force early elections to be held.