Slovenia quickly developed a civil society in the second half of the eighties. Attempts to centralise power in Belgrade had even started to increase in intensity, in both economic and other fields, above all cultural. Pressure increased in particular in the summer of 1988 with the military process against three journalists of the magazine Mladina and a warrant officer. The process, conceived as a tool for frightening the disobedient Slovenes achieved precisely the opposite effect: mass demonstrations, although non-violent and thus so much more effective. Slogans of real democracy, political pluralism and free elections were joined by the demand for an independent Slovenia.

The first steps

The first step to independence was taken in September 1989. The then Slovene Assembly adopted an amendment to the republican Constitution, whereby Slovenia obtained the basis for a sovereign state. Thereafter, in accepting the financial obligations of the federation, parliament had to respect the material possibilities of the republic and nobody could declare a state of emergency in Slovenia or order any other measures in this connection without its consent. The Serbs intended to organise a large meeting in Ljubljana but the Slovene state and political organs were firmly against it. The meeting was banned, and Serbia declared an economic embargo on Slovenia.

In 1990, the final creation of Demos began, a coalition of the most important new parties. At political meetings, Demos presented a declaration on Slovene self-determination in which, among other things, they committed themselves to a plebiscite. On 20 January, the final act of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia took place, its 14th Extraordinary Congress. The Slovene delegation abandoned the meeting since all Slovene proposals had been ignored. In March, the Assembly again adopted amendments to the Slovene Constitution. Among other things, the word Socialist was deleted from the name of the Republic. A Declaration was also adopted regulating relations of general importance for Slovenia, and responding to the Serbian economic embargo. Slovenia decided that it would thereafter adopt measures of economic self-defence independently.

The first post-war multi-party elections were held in April 1990 and Demos obtained 126 of 240 seats in the parliament. The opposition was made up of the Party of Democratic Renewal (former Communist), Liberal Democratic Party, Socialist Party of Slovenia - and independent delegates. Milan Kučan was elected president of the Republic, and Lozje Peterle, president of the Slovene Christian Democrats, became Prime Minister.

After threats of the introduction of a state of emergency, Slovenia, although still formally a part of SFRY, adopted a Declaration on the sovereignty of the state of the Republic of Slovenia. Thereafter, the political, economic and legal system of the republic was based on its own components and laws, and the Constitution and laws of the federation were to apply only if not in conflict with the Slovene legal order. The events which followed finally buried the illusion of the possibilities of co-existence within Yugoslavia.

Plebiscite - the will of the people

A plebiscite on a sovereign and independent state was in such circumstances only a natural result of conditions and relations within Yugoslavia. More than 88% of Slovene electors chose independence on 23 December 1991. A report of the presidency of SFRY followed that it was a case of secession and an anti-constitutional act, the Serbian authorities then raided the Yugoslav financial system, so that Serbia misappropriated almost two billion dollars.

Measures in the legal field followed the plebiscite in 1991. The assembly annulled the provisions of the Slovene Constitution whereby sovereign rights of the republic had been transferred to bodies of the federation. In March, a moratorium was adopted on sending conscripts to the Yugoslav army. Fourteen independence laws adopted in June provided the basis for regulating internal political and economic questions, and on 25 June, six months after the announcement of the plebiscite results, Slovenia became legally independent with the Basic Constitutional Charter on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Slovenia.

On the grounds that it had to protect the borders of Yugoslavia, on 27 June the Yugoslav army moved on the border crossings. The resistance of Slovenes was mass, organised and entirely successful; immediate blockades of barracks, intensive negotiations with commanding officers, assaults by the territorial defence - the Slovene army - on occupied border crossings and advancing armoured columns succeeded. After a ten-day war, which caused huge material damage, on 7th July the Yugoslav army renounced the further use of force and Slovenia, on the proposal of the European Community, froze the independence project for three months. On 7th October, Slovenia took over control of its own borders and introduced its own money - the tolar, and on 25th October, the last soldier of the Yugoslav army left Slovenia.

The Slovene Constitution was adopted on 23 December 1991, one year after the holding of the plebiscite. A legitimate foundation for the new political arrangement was thus provided by the plebiscite, the Basic Constitutional Charter and the new Constitution.

(Extracts from Discover Slovenia; Cankarjeva založba, 1998)