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Country Info | Steps to Independence of Slovenia

Steps to Independence

The first step to independence was taken in 1989. The Slovene Assembly then adopted an amendment to the republican constitution whereby Slovenia acquired the foundations of a sovereign state. The parliament had from thenceforth to respect the material possibilities of the republic in undertaking financial obligations to the federation, and without its agreement, nobody could declare a state of emergency in Slovenia or decree any kind of measures in connection with such a state. The Serbs proposed to organise a great rally in Ljubljana, but Slovene state and political bodies sharply opposed this. The rally was banned, and Serbia announced an economic boycott of Slovenia.

1990 -- the year of the horse in the Chinese horoscope, which brings great changes -- started with the final creation of Demos, the coalition of the most important new parties. In January, the first postwar (WWII) multi-party elections were called. At its political rallies, Demos presented a declaration on Slovene self-determination, in which, among other things, it committed itself to a plebiscite. The last act of the League of Communist of Yugoslavia took place on January 20, at its 14th Extraordinary Congress. The Slovene delegation left the meeting because agreement could not be reached on their proposals. In March, the Slovene Assembly again adopted an amendment to the Slovene constitution. Among other things, the word "Socialist" was deleted from the name of the republic. It also adopted a declaration on the arrangement of measures of general importance for Slovenia and replied to the Serbian economic boycott. Slovenia henceforth undertook its own measures of economic self-protection, and secured its own path to democracy.

Elections

Elections were held in April 1990, and Demos won 126 of the 240 seats in parliament. The remainder were held by the opposition -- the Party of Democratic Renewal (former Communists), the Liberal Democratic Party, the Socialist Party of Slovenia and Independent delegates. Milan Kucan, the candidate of the Party of Democratic Renewal was elected President of the Republic, and Lojze Peterle, a member of the Christian Democratic Party, became President of the Government.

Slovenia, although still formally a constituent part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, after federal threats to implement a state of emergency adopted a declaration on the sovereignty of the State of the Republic of Slovenia. The political, economic and judicial system of the republic was henceforth based on its own constitution and laws, and the constitution and laws of the federation applied only if they were not in contradiction to the Slovene constitutional order.

The events which followed finally buried the illusion of possible coexistence in Yugoslavia. The various options of a rearrangement of the state, including that of confederation, which Slovenia had for long been offering the rest of Yugoslavia, became politically dead. The Serbs in Croatia declared autonomy. Kosovo remained an unresolved problem, the Serbian government introduced customs duties on Slovene products. The federal government and assembly were impotent. The Yugoslav army became a state within the state.

Plebiscite

In such circumstances, the plebiscite on a sovereign independent state was only a natural product of realities and relations within Yugoslavia. On December 23, 1990, more than 88% of all registered voters in Slovenia voted for independence. It was followed by an announcement from the presidency of SFRY that this was secession and an anti-constitutional act, and then by the Serbian raid on the Yugoslav monetary system by which Serbia stole almost two billion dollars.

The plebiscite in 1990 was followed by measures in legislative field. The Assembly annulled certain provisions of the Slovene constitution, thereby transferring the implementation of the sovereign rights of the republic from federal bodies. In March 1991, it adopted a moratorium on sending conscripts to the Yugoslav army. The fourteen independence laws adopted in June provided the basis for settling internal political and economic questions and, six months after the promulgation of the plebiscite results, on June 25, 1991, Slovenia became legally independent by the Basic Constitutional Charter of the Sovereign Independence of the Republic of Slovenia.

Winning independence

On the grounds that it had to protect the frontiers of Yugoslavia, the army set out across Slovenia to the border crossing on June 27, 1991. The Slovenes resisted en masse, and organised; the immediate blockade of barracks, intensive negotiations with commanding officers, attacks by the territorial defence (the Slovene army) on occupied border crossings and advancing armoured columns were successful. After a ten day war, on July 7, 1991, the army called off further intervention, and Slovenia, on the proposal of the European Community, accepted a moratorium on the independence project. On October 7, it took over control of its own borders and introduced its own money -- the tolar, and on October 25, 1991, the last soldier of the Yugoslav army left Slovenia.

Constitutional order

The Slovene constitution was adopted on December 23, 1991, one year after the implementation of the plebiscite. A legitimate basis for the new political arrangement was thus provided by the plebiscite, the basic constitutional act and new constitution.

The new constitutional order derives from the principle that Slovenia is a democratic republic and a legal and social state. The commitment to a legal state binds it to base all its acts on the law, the provisions of a social state to care for the material and social well-being of its citizens. The people hold power in Slovenia and citizens can implement it directly and through elections. An important part of the constitution is devoted to human rights deriving from traditional human rights such as the rights to life, freedom and property.

The constitutional order is based on the principle of the division of power among the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The highest body of legislative authority is the National Assembly which has 90 delegates. The National Council, with 40 councillors, has been introduced as a kind of advisory body. The President of the Republic represents Slovenia and is the commander-in-chief of its defence forces. The government, which consists of a president and ministers, is the highest executive body, and is independent within the bounds of its competences, and answerable to the National Assembly. Judges exercise judicial authority and their appointment is for life (see Constitutional Court).

Local government reform has completely ended the former system of municipalities, since by the new constitution, a municipality no longer has state competencies but is merely self-governing local community.

Treatment of minorities

The national tensions which led to war in former Yugoslavia raise the question of minorities in the Republic of Slovenia. There are no ethnic groups in Slovenia to whom the right to national self-determination belong and thus the possibility of forming their own state. There are two autonomous national communities here, Italian and Hungarian, who make up approximately half a percent of the total population.

According to the new constitution, the Italian and Hungarian communities are guaranteed the free use of their national symbols and, in order to preserve their national identity, they may form their own organisations and develop economic, cultural and scientific research activities and activities in the field of media and publishing. They have the right under law to education and upbringing in their own language, and they are guaranteed the right to develop relations with the mother nation. The Italian and Hungarian national communities are also guaranteed representation in the National Assembly.

As far as members of other nations and nationalities in Slovenia are concerned, the law on citizenship enabled them to obtain Slovene citizenship until December 25, 1991 under very favourable conditions. The law on foreigners applies to those who did not make use of this. Among other things, this envisages permits for residence in the country and in the case of employment, also work permits.

Adapted by Mark Martinec from: Discover Slovenia, Karel Natek et al., Cankarjeva Zalozba, 1993

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