By: Dr Metod Berlec
We are living in a time when many things have been turned upside down, including the fact that we are governed by the political successors of those for whom the independence of the Republic of Slovenia was never their “most intimate option.”
Let us recall how the leadership of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Slovenia, headed by Milan Kučan, responded to the publication of the legendary issue no. 57 of Nova revija – Contributions to the Slovenian National Programme in 1987. “The League of Communists of Slovenia (ZKS), through its activities and together with all socialist forces, will do everything to ensure that the views of certain authors of the ‘Contributions to the Slovenian National Programme’ and other similar positions, which are not in line with the program principles of the Socialist Alliance of the Working People (SZDL), will not be implemented in society.”
Thank God their anti-Slovenian incantations failed. Quite the opposite happened. The ideas from Nova revija no. 57 became a reality within four or five years, despite the transitional left’s fierce opposition, including through the Fundamental Charter of Slovenia in 1989, which still pledged loyalty to life in Yugoslavia. But already in May 1989, the democratic opposition alliances, which later united under the DEMOS coalition, had presented the May Declaration 1989, which called for life in an independent and sovereign Slovenian state. That is why we featured on the cover of Demokracija some prominent representatives of the “old forces” (Jožef Školč, Mile Šetinc, Jože Smole, Milan Aksentijević, and Jaša Zlobec), who in the first democratic assembly fiercely opposed the passing of laws that were paving Slovenia’s path to independence in 1990–1991. We also featured Kučan, who as president of the presidency of the Republic of Slovenia played a double game. Even on June 25th, 1991, he was still speaking about a Yugoslav framework, as we elaborate on further in this issue. Politically tactically, and wisely, he had already jumped on the DEMOS independence train beforehand, although he remained, in his heart, committed to a socialist Yugoslavia. In doing so, he not only saved himself politically, but also rescued the transitional left and its connected networks, which temporarily went underground.
In the current moment, it is therefore no surprise that we are witnessing populist games within the left-wing ruling coalition (Gibanje Svoboda, SD, and Levica) concerning defence spending, and even extremely harmful ideas about leaving NATO. It is crystal clear that, as a sovereign and independent European state, we need a well-equipped military, and that we must remain part of the world’s most important defence alliance. Only then will we endure. But for successful national development, we will also need voters to exercise common sense in the parliamentary elections, likely to be held in March of next year. And of course, we will need a competent centre-right government. Without it, we face the threat of total collapse…