By: Davorin Kopše
A wonderful national celebration on the occasion of Independence and Unity Day at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana. 31 years after the majority of the people decided that Slovenia should become an independent and sovereign state, the celebration was a real treat. As this year’s celebration aroused and strengthened patriotic feelings, it was truly a real treat, satisfying the wishes and expectations of patriots. In this way, national consciousness and pride are gaining public importance again, they are our grip on existence, and the multitude of elated praises has confirmed that this is right.
Introduction
After the Slovenian national anthem, we watched a summary of events in the times of independence on the big screen. It was not possible without risk, courage and action and we went through it all. We knew how to defend all the necessary actions in the preparations and implementation at that time, politically as well as militarily. During the preparations, the army was presented as a force capable of defending independent Slovenia. It gave us even more confidence and proved that it was trustworthy.
The central message of wanting to achieve something could be understood in the sentence that we must first acknowledge ourselves, only then will we be recognised by others. It is the same with every success. You cannot be successful if you do not believe in yourself first. We were a nation without our own state, and we became a nation with our own state. We formalised what belonged to us. Since then, it has been about Slovenia and the whole world knows where our compatriots who are successful at the highest levels come from. Our pride was strengthened by the strong vocals of Omar Naber, who sang the song Moja domovina about a proud Slovenian family.
Core
The main speaker was Prime Minister Janez Janša. In the introduction, he wondered if we had really become some remote valley of tears after thirty years. We went on to find out that this is an inverted rhetorical question, as this is without a doubt a self-imposed force, which dates to the distant past, when Slovenes in various capitals of common countries and connections were considered second-class. We formally dealt with second-classness 31 years ago, but it seems we still have to deal with it. There are no reasons, Slovenians are close to many achievements of science and technology.
Successful Slovenes have spread the word about Slovenia, which does not speak of a valley of tears. Others do not see us as a remote valley due to independence. Our independence goes hand in hand with innovations for which many Slovenes are known as individuals. However, independence was a collective act, where we Slovenes literally wrote our own judgment. Independence was original and we did it ourselves from start to finish. The speaker said that Slovenes do not owe anyone anything for it historically.
Today, we can boast that we are going up in many indicators of success and we are the fifth most desirable country in the world according to Lonely Planet (the world’s tourist guide). Practically all the most important areas by which the quality of life is measured have been listed, and we are one of the most egalitarian societies in the world. We have heard that Slovenia ranks fifth in terms of expenditure on cultural services. It is important to emphasise that culture is one of the pillars that have preserved Slovenes as a nation.
According to many statistics, Slovenians are in the best position since we began to measure. These include quality of life, social security, inclusion, education, unemployment rate, gross domestic product growth and many other parameters. The speaker notes that where we have great natural advantages, we are progressing too slowly. It is here that many opportunities and possibilities await us in the future. With the biggest competitive advantage we have, that is in people, we have the potential to become significantly better.
At this point, too, we heard the emphasis on the fact that we Slovenes have achieved everything we have on our own. We paid a different price for individual achievements. The more we agreed on the original and innovative, the lower the price we paid. Nothing has changed in this to date, and today we know and prove this based on experience. Speaker Janša could be understood that we should not be ashamed in front of others, but on the contrary. We can only be proud of our achievements and resources, and today we have even greater opportunities due to the availability of knowledge.
We are promised a different dynamic than we were used to. The vastness of the universe is opening to us, where those real stars are available to us, Janša emphasised (not red; fn.). Innovations and participation of Slovenes have been contributed in the past and there is no reason not to do so in the future. Knowledge is definitely an opportunity. No one smart will reject our knowledge and it will never be otherwise.
With all the emphasis, however, man deserves the most. Without people, everything else is of no use to us. This is the reason why we need to take care of demography and reverse the trends so that Slovenians will also survive biologically. There is no Slovenia without Slovenes. There can be a state without Slovenes in this area, but it will not be Slovenia if there are no Slovenes. If we see enough of our accomplishments and are aware of ourselves, we will have more joy in life and have more children.
We will not take comfort in this (Franc Jeza was exposed, who said; but we can take comfort in this…) that many small unknown people live in Slovenia, who remain true unknown heroes of freedom and national consciousness in the political sense and who will miraculously emerge like flowers in spring, although in the middle of winter everything seems to be dead under the snow and play a decisive role. For Jeza, despite being considered a dreamer by some, proved to be a visionary.
What Franc Jeza announced happened during the Slovenian spring when we decided on our own country. The heroes of freedom emerged. They can and will continue to arise in the future if new challenges challenge us. If we Slovenes remain united and together, we can achieve all that that sometimes seems dead and impossible.
Music to the ears and the soul is the conclusion of the speech. Slovenia always needs great people. We know where the challenge was three decades ago, and we know where that challenge is today. If we look for a hero in our heart, in our soul and in the depths of our country, something extraordinary can arise again, although in the middle of winter it sometimes seems that everything is dead under the snow. It is this hero of ours who can play a decisive role.
Conclusion
Emphasis on many successes of Slovenia’s presidency of the Council of the EU sounded like a kind of connection to the previous speech of the Prime Minister. Everything said about Slovenes and their qualities was used for Slovenia to make many breakthroughs during its presidency. It has made progress where others have failed several terms of office. Because the Slovenian team worked in a common spirit and did not highlight their own interests. It found these in the common good.
The footage of the European Commissioners, all of whom in turn highlighted the successes, raised our heads in an even more proud stance. After this transition, we touched all Slovenian regions from east to west and from north to south of our beautiful homeland through song and folk dances.
Seven dialects, seven cultural points, seven highlights of the importance of homeland and home. The home is presented as the homeland of Slovenia, as a home place, home yard or home house. All united in what is important to a person, what s/he is attached to and what s/he wants to keep forever.
I do not know what it was like for others from different parts of Slovenia, but I thought all the performances were very homely. This is one Slovenia in diversity, and it should remain so. May God continue to stand by it/us.
Davorin Kopše is a veteran of the war for Slovenia, a candidate for MEP and an active citizen.