By: C. R.
The president of the Slovenian Democratic Party, Janez Janša, addressed the National Assembly at the session during which the vote on the prime‑minister will take place. Below is the full transcript of his address.
Mr President, esteemed Assembly, Slovenians, citizens…
In these similarly spring days of May 1990, at the beginning of the creation of the Slovenian state, the first democratically elected government was sworn in in this very hall. Its prime minister, Lojze Peterle, presented a programme built on two pillars: a sovereign, independent Slovenia and the full democratisation of its institutions, the same two principles expressed in the May Declaration read by Tone Pavček a year earlier on the Congress Square.
Since the first prime minister of the first democratically elected Slovenian government, Mr Lojze Peterle, is currently fighting a serious illness, I would like to take this opportunity to wish him, on behalf of all of us, a swift and successful recovery.
When Lojze Peterle presented the programme of the first Slovenian government here, it was broader than the Demos coalition itself, and ministers from the then‑opposition parties – including those who opposed the government – were invited to participate. It was open and inclusive. At that time, it was believed that of the two key points of the programme, the more difficult one would be the first: a sovereign and independent Slovenia. We imagined that after those first elections, democratisation and the transition from a one‑party regime to a democratic parliamentary system would be the easier part of the project. No one imagined that it would be easier to defend a newly declared, barely established independent state against what was then on paper the fourth‑strongest army in Europe than to democratise the country and, through a serious transition, establish a democratic and legal order in which we are all equal before the law, in which human rights are respected, and in which some would no longer believe, as they had for the previous 50 years, that history had placed them in power and that power would change hands without major traumas, attempts to buy MPs, threats, protests, granite cubes, and so on, because that is simply how democracy normally functions.
Unfortunately, we were wrong.
It was easier to achieve independence than to democratise Slovenia. Because if that had been fully accomplished back then, I would not be standing here today. After being directly elected to every term of this parliament – I believe I am the only one in this chamber – often with the highest number of votes in my district or electoral unit, depending on the system at the time, I certainly would not be reading some of the points from the coalition agreement signed yesterday, because they would be unnecessary. Sadly, Slovenia completed its transition only halfway, and so in the coming years we face double work: finishing certain democratisation processes that were never successfully concluded. In some offices, only the signs with the names of institutions and the people sitting there changed, while the substance remained the same, even after individuals changed, their sons, nephews, and so on came to occupy the same positions.
Yesterday, the coalition striving to form a development‑oriented government signed the coalition agreement, which also contains the fundamental principles I will present now. If there are enough votes and we go on to present the programme of the future government, we will outline the measures in more detail.
The core substantive priorities of the coalition seeking to establish a development‑focused government are the following: the development and prosperity of Slovenia, the fight against corruption and organised crime, decentralisation, and debureaucratisation. The goal of pursuing these priorities is to shape Slovenia into a country of opportunity, prosperity, and fairness, a country in which every responsible citizen feels safe and accepted. The coalition’s policies will be based on measurable objectives, accountability of decision‑makers, and regular monitoring of results, in other words, on meritocracy.
The coalition will build its development policies on the ambition of creating a successful Slovenia. We create so that our descendants will be better off than we were. We create things future generations will be proud of. Instead of envy, we offer ambition and opportunity. We uphold the belief that with good work and effort, success is possible. We want to shape a society in which the individual is not dependent on the state but can develop themselves and build on their own independence and self‑reliance.
Our goal is a Slovenia that is highly developed, competitive, and socially responsible, a country based on knowledge, innovation, fairness, and a high quality of life. Our goal is a country that respects the dignity of every person, including the deceased, and enables each individual to develop their talents and build a family in a safe environment. We advocate the pace of development that an individual or company is capable of achieving. The state must create an encouraging environment for all who wish to go faster and higher. For those who, despite effort, work, or unfortunate circumstances, stumble, we provide a social safety net. The state must lead procedures for their swift reactivation and rapid return to the labour market. The state must create the conditions for individual success, not replace individual initiative, while social policy must ensure security for those who truly need it.
Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately Slovenia is among the European countries with the oldest population, this is a strategic problem for our nation. Birth rates have dropped drastically across Europe as well. The solution, both for Slovenia and Europe, does not lie in immigration, but in raising prosperity, improving the efficiency of all subsystems, fostering greater joy in life, and increasing birth rates. This is why we place the Slovenian family at the forefront as the fundamental cell of society. A family with children is, from both a national and economic perspective, an investment project for the future, not a part of social policy.
The foundation of development policy is creating better conditions for the domestic economy as well as encouraging foreign investment, the only path that ultimately brings more money for wages, for high‑quality and accessible public services, and for other common needs of a modern developed society. Work is not a social category but a developmental and economic one, it creates prosperity and consequently finances social services. Without productivity and a successful economy, there is no welfare state; without a welfare state, there is no balanced development. This is why we support social dialogue. But the condition for it is politically independent organisations of employers and employees. Neither side may act as an extension of politics. Especially in the case of trade unions, it is more than obvious that this is unfortunately not the case today.
We do not focus solely on the minimum wage, as has been the case over the past four years. Instead, we direct our efforts toward raising all wages through higher productivity and rational state spending. We advocate meritocracy and pay based on work and results. There is no progress without competition.
Instead of additional taxation of all those who invested in their own homes, we will, through debureaucratisation, decentralisation, and a housing guarantee scheme for young people, create conditions in which as many individuals as possible can build their own roof, their own home, and their own independence.
We support reasonable environmental protection policies that ensure both prosperity and a healthy natural living environment, while also strengthening the country’s energy sovereignty. Food is a strategic resource. Food and energy security are essential elements of national security. With effective measures, we will strengthen the entire agricultural and food chain, with special emphasis on young farm successors and family farms. We will ensure a high level of energy security through reliable and diversified sources.
Ladies and gentlemen, two decades ago the people of Slovenia decided in two referendums to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, with the desire and the goal of strengthening both our own security and prosperity, as well as the shared security and prosperity of our continent. We did not join in order to renounce our hard‑won sovereignty or to burden ourselves with additional bureaucratic constraints on top of our own. Therefore, we will support all efforts, including those of many other member states, to relieve the single European market of excessive bureaucracy and harmful anti‑scientific ideology, and to restore the free movement of people within the EU through strict control of legal migration and the prevention of illegal migration at the external borders.
Above all, we see both alliances as part of the peace architecture of European civilisation – an architecture that must be capable of deterring threats through the projection of real power, and of using that power when necessary, as well as capable of expanding and building bridges on a global scale. The last 20 years have shown that if the European Union does not expand its space of peace, someone else will, there is no vacuum. This is why EU enlargement is a strategic project.
The coalition will devote special attention to high‑quality, accessible, and modern education at all levels, and to promoting lifelong learning as a foundation of development. We are entering a decade in which lifelong learning will become the norm. We will systematically strengthen workforce development in cooperation with the economy and create conditions for retaining domestic talent and encouraging the return of Slovenian experts from abroad.
Through the principle that money from the public health insurance fund must follow the patient, we will upgrade the system with the aim of ensuring accessible, high‑quality, and efficient healthcare for all citizens. We support the decentralisation of the state and the financial autonomy of municipalities, as defined by the Slovenian Constitution. Slovenian municipalities, together with the Slovenian economy, have been a key factor of stability over the past decades, one of the main reasons why we are doing at least as well as we are.
Local self‑government and the Slovenian economy. We will distribute numerous units of state administration and the headquarters or parts of ministries across different Slovenian regions. The distance and cost of commuting are the same whether one travels from Ljubljana to Celje or vice versa, from Ljubljana to Murska Sobota or vice versa, from Koper to Ljubljana or vice versa. By doing this, we will reduce traffic pressure and congestion on the main routes into the capital of this extremely centralised state. A mere 10% reversal of traffic flows results in a 20% reduction of peak‑hour congestion.
Decentralisation is one of the key development levers, aimed at establishing strong regions with original competences and resources, and therefore responsibility for their own development. We will shape a leaner state, a smaller and more efficient administration, gradually ensuring higher‑quality public‑service delivery through digitalisation and the use of artificial intelligence, and introducing performance‑based pay, which encourages creativity and higher productivity. We will remove bureaucratic obstacles and build a more relaxed Slovenia, one that is not based on regulations alone, but on common sense, healthy competitiveness, and responsibility.
The coalition will direct reforms toward measures and areas that improve people’s lives and circumstances. All rights matter to us, and the rights of all, both minorities and the majority. Equality of rights is the foundation of coexistence for the good of society.
Corruption corrodes society, we see this every day and every hour. It makes public services more expensive, destroys citizens’ trust in state institutions, and undermines the environment of healthy competition and social development. The coalition has therefore established a pillar dedicated to the priority prosecution and suppression of corruption and organised crime. Within our constitutional framework, this pillar will create a comprehensive system of institutions for combating corruption and organised criminality. In recent days, we have seen that this is an even greater priority than we believed when drafting these principles.
Slovenia is our common home. We value our homeland, our culture, and our tradition, as well as the culture and tradition of both autochthonous minorities, the Hungarian and Italian national communities. We are grateful to our ancestors for what they built, respectful of their efforts and sacrifices, and forgiving of their actions, as we expect the same attitude from our descendants.
The coalition that signed the agreement yesterday accepts the history of our nation and state as it is. We will highlight those historical events that united us, not those that divided us. We will build on the social foundations that connect us. We value every individual who, in the last century, resisted any totalitarian regime. We condemn all crimes, regardless of the ideology used to justify them. We recognise that every civilised society must first bury its dead with respect, only then can we create the basic conditions in which differing views of the past do not prevent cooperation for the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are aware that independent Slovenia, our state, would certainly and demonstrably not exist without the Slovenian independence movement, which united the Slovenian nation. The values of Slovenian independence are therefore the moral centre of our nation and state, and the foundation on which independent Slovenia stands. On this foundation, we do not defend the past, we build the future, because it is the only foundation we have. We are ready to cooperate with all stakeholders. If the government is elected, we will offer the opposition cooperation within a partnership for development, with the ambition of agreeing on certain necessary amendments to our Constitution. We will also invite the opposition to participate in a Convention on the Future of Slovenia, whose goal will be to define the country’s development priorities for the next three decades.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you in advance for your support, and may God bless a successful Slovenia.
