By: Bogdan Sajovic
The Republic of Slovenia has always been broadminded in granting citizenships. The disappearance of national identity. The pro-migration policy of left-liberal governments. Requirements for doctors and teachers who speak Albanian or Bosnian. How much of Slovenia is still Slovenian?
These days mark the thirtieth anniversary of those days in which we “fulfilled the millennial dreams of our ancestors” and “got our country for the first time in history.” Well, getting it is not the most accurate mark, as no one gave it to us, but we had to fight for it with weapon. In any case, an independent Slovenia was formed, and if the rhetoric was a bit dramatic at the time, why not? The event was certainly one of the most ground-breaking in the history of our nation. As a nation, Slovenians are few in number. According to the most generous estimates, there are one and a half million of us together with the diaspora. These 20,251 square kilometres are the only home we have and where we can preserve our identity, traditions, culture and language. But even then, when we had barely established our country, those for whom an independent Slovenia had never been an intimate option began to create problems. Although the percentage was negligible, in real numbers around seventy thousand voters voted against independent Slovenia or cast invalid ballots. And there were about a hundred thousand more who could not even bother to get to the polls. Most of them belonged to the left political option and many of them held key positions in Slovenian society. As the lustration of old communist cadres was not carried out – one of the main ideologues of the independence Demos, France Bučar, roared that “lustration would be carried out only over his dead body” – these opponents of independence remained in key positions in Slovenian society in independent Slovenia. And as we can see today, they immediately started digging and tried to keep Slovenia as “Yugoslav” as possible.
Broad-minded allocation of citizenships
Opponents of Slovene independence quickly began to attack the independence activists, claiming that they were trying to implement a nationalist, chauvinist policy of “Blut und Boden”. Of course, what followed was the proving of the independence activists that this was not the case, which is why Slovenia generously granted Slovenian citizenships to members of the nations of the former common state of Yugoslavia. There was an official condition that they must know Slovene and know the basics of Slovene culture and history, but apparently no one actually adhered to this. Moreover, under the rule of the left-liberal LDS and its president Janez Drnovšek, Slovenia opened its doors wide to immigration from Bosnia, where the war was raging, as well as from Serbia, which was under economic blockade. Only “temporarily”, but a good part of these immigrants stayed with their families and acquired citizenship. Moreover, many immigrants came to Slovenia with those, who left it in 1991 because they did not agree with its independence, and then discovered that they would be materially better off in Slovenia than in their hometown. In this way, even a few officers who actively participated in the aggression against Slovenia immigrated, but were nevertheless accepted, and received citizenship and pensions. On the other hand, Slovene leftists in every way hindered the possible return of Slovenes who had once fled abroad in order to avoid the communist massacre at the end of World War II or the suppression of the totalitarian red regime.
At the end of the millennium, another wave of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia followed, first Albanians fleeing Serbian ethnic cleansing and then Kosovo Serbs when the situation reversed and Albanians began with terror.
Resolutions in support of migration
According to statistical data, in the first ten years of independent Slovenia, 191,000 people obtained Slovenian citizenship, almost without exception from the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This trend of immigration is not over, not even by chance, although the killings in the Balkans are long over. Fifteen years ago, in the real estate bubble phase, there was a new influx of immigrants from the Balkans. Due to the demand for new constructions and consequently construction workers, tens of thousands of workers immigrated from Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. When these real estate bubble burst, a significant number of these “temporary” workers remained in Slovenia. In addition, they brought their usually large families, which the Slovenian authorities did not prevent them from doing. What is more, they have helped them, and such behaviour has resulted in many places where immigrants are pushing out the indigenous peoples. The most typical examples are the cities of Velenje, Kranj, Jesenice, as well as Ljubljana and some coastal cities. In some places, they are already looking for doctors and teachers with knowledge of the Albanian or Bosnian language. So what about the condition “knowledge of the Slovenian language” for acquiring citizenship?
Of course, this immigration has a legal basis. During the rule of the left-liberal LDS, two resolutions were adopted – the first in 1998 and the second in 2002 – which provide legal support for migration to Slovenia. Of course, they were not their ideas, as the time of their creation coincides with similar pro-migration resolutions abroad. For example, with those introduced in the UK by Tony Blair’s “new Labour”. It also coincides with the beginning of the global trend of mass migration, which has all the propaganda and logistical support of the big media and NGOs. It is no coincidence, of course, that it was then, in 2002, that George Soros received the highest Slovenian decoration.
How much of Slovenia is still Slovenian?
Slovenia is slightly different from most other members of the European Union, as the vast majority of its immigrants originate from the former Yugoslavia, and immigrants from the Third World are still “exotic” for now. But this can change quickly, as Slovenia recently, again under the left wing liberal government, signed an approach to the Declaration, which opens the door wide to mass migration from the third world. The consequence of such a policy can be seen in many Western European countries, where traditions, culture, national identity, even history are sacrificed on the altar of a multicultural society, and more and more cities are losing their European image and turning into third world ghettos. And this is already happening in Slovenia, a little less visible than in Western European countries, but still. Thus, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the “realised thousand-year-old dream, when we Slovenes finally got our country”, the question arises as to how much of this is still our country. Given that the left-liberal pro-migrant governments have long since abolished the rubric of national and religious affiliation in the census, essentially we do not even know exactly how many Slovenes still live in their own country.