By: Dr Metod Berlec
“Yugoslavia is no more; Yugoslavia is no more. This is about Slovenia. And it is about Slovenia because today Slovenian politics has received the mandate from Slovenian voters to carry out what this plebiscite was about!”
(Dr Jože Pučnik, December 23rd, 1990, in the evening at Cankar Hall, when it became clear that Slovenes had decided in the plebiscite that they wanted to live in an independent and sovereign Republic of Slovenia.)
The words quoted above from the president of Demos, Jože Pučnik, will forever be recorded in Slovenian history, as they marked a break with the disintegrating socialist Yugoslavia and the birth of a new, independent state of Slovenia. The state of the Slovenian nation!
Unfortunately, the transition did not turn out as we had hoped. In recent days, a recording has emerged of a conversation that Milan Kučan had during the previous Janša government for one of the Balkan radio-television stations. When asked by the host how he comments on the fact that the successor states of the former SFRY are similarly inefficient as the former failed state, similarly nationalistic, undemocratic, corrupt, and economically underdeveloped, he said: “Partly, I see the cause in the fact that the European Union turned its back on these countries, because it was dealing with its own problems. Secondly, I see some kind of retrograde processes in all these countries, including Slovenia. If I look back a bit. What was expected in 1990 and 1991, when independent Slovenia was born? That it would be fundamentally different from the state we left. Today, under the current government, Slovenia is increasingly becoming similar to the state we left in 1991. That is the tragedy.” Really, the scheming godfather from Murgle? Undoubtedly, this applies to events under the current Golob government.
Today, almost 35 years later, under the current left-wing government, we are indeed witnessing processes that are turning Slovenia into a kind of new Yugoslavia or Serboslavia. From the closure of the Museum of Slovenian Independence, the Office for Demographics, and the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Communist Violence, to the revival of historical events that remind us more of the previous totalitarian state than of an independent Slovenia. And there are many other tendencies heading in this direction. Symbolically, this is now highlighted by the large Serbian flag hanging almost directly opposite the Ljubljana Magistrate, at Ciril-Metodov Square 1, where the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia is now located. Right in the very centre of the Slovenian capital. This would not have been possible without the consent of Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs under Tanja Fajon, and the Golob government. To have the flag of those who attacked us in 1991 flying in the very heart of the Slovenian capital is outrageous. Previously, they told us we would be eating grass if we seceded. Some even said they would kill us all if necessary. Shame!