As you might know by now, though the results of the referendum are not binding (since less than 50% of the people showed up), the victory of the 'yes' camp was so clear — with over 59% of the vote — that the prime-minister has announced that the matter will be brought to the national assembly. Since there is a very clear majority in the parliament supporting the legalisation of abortion, it seems that everything will turn out alright in the end: the law will be changed!

Now, I am not particularly fond of the concept of a referendum (an issue I promise I will come back to in a future post). The problem with the abstention is yet another reason why. Yesterday, the bad weather was to blame (it was quite rainy and stormy, especially here in the north), while in the previous referendum held in 1998, the blame fell on the gloriously sunny june weather. It strikes me a insane that such an important matter should be dependent on something as irrelevant as the weather, but that's what's been happening.

Something interesting on the results: there is a very sharp division between the north and the south ( look at the map in the Wikipedia page). The north, more catholic and conservative, voted 'no', while the south, more liberal, voted 'yes'. The only exception up north was the district of Porto, where the 'yes' won. Unsurprisingly, this is also the most urban district in the northern region. Moreover, if you look at the results parish by parish, you will find out that the 'yes' also won in the urban parishes from northern cities. In some cases, just a few kilometers make all the difference: the distribution of votes between the yes-no camps will shift from 60-40 in a city to 10-90 in the neighbouring rural areas!