Discussion Civic Atrium: What is at stake in the upcoming referendum? took place on June 30, 2026 in Banská Bystrica. The event was organized by the civic association Občianske spoločenstvo (Civic Community) and the civic association Atrium Banská Bystrica as part of a joint regular discussion cycle. 

The discussion was attended by the president of IVO Grigorij Mesežnikov, together with Lajos Mészáros (former MP, former judge of the Constitutional Court, expert in constitutional law), Zuzana Janíčková (civic activist, artist, manager of culture) and Peter Tatár (physician, former MP, civic activist, co-founder of the VPN movement, co-founder of the Civic Community). The discussion was moderated by Timotej Lauko (manager of the Civic Community). 

In the announcement of the discussion, published on the social network, the co-organizers stated that “a referendum is one of the most powerful tools that citizens have directly in their hands in a democracy. Despite this, we rarely use it and it rarely becomes the subject of a broader public discussion. What does a referendum actually mean? When does it help to strengthen democracy and when, on the contrary, it can divide society? How does it work in Slovakia and abroad? And what is at stake in the upcoming referendum, in which Slovak citizens will decide?” 



The participants in the discussion addressed various aspects of the referendum history of Slovakia – the legal regulation of popular vote and the enforceability of its results, specific experiences from the work of political parties and civil society actors in the context of proposed and implemented referenda, public opinion on the use of referendums as an instrument of direct democracy.