In the most recent episode of the show “Kdo vam laže?” (Who Is Lying To You?), the presenter continued his conversation with Janez Janša. Both the host, Boris Tomašič, and the guest were surprised that so many people were shocked that not everyone was in favour of Slovenia’s independence. “The reactions to our conversation from last week also surprised me – especially the fact that so many people know so little about what actually happened on the 25th of June 1991. Even those who were already following politics at the time,” Janša pointed out.
Janez Janša stated that while it was true that the following day, there was a declaration of war and consequently, a war followed, which was covered up by dramatic events, we all need to keep in mind the fact that on the 25th of June, the most important legislative session in the history of this country was held. At the session in question, representatives voted in favour of an independent Slovenia and confirmed the decision taken in the independence referendum.
To make it easier to understand, the authors of the show prepared some snapshots which, 34 years on, show a different situation from the majority view. In particular, according to Tomašič, the then-President of the Presidency, Milan Kučan, and the Party of Democratic Renewal agreed with independence in principle, but at the same time used all possible procedures to make the matter impossible to implement. “Yes – and that’s at the very end. The attempts went in three directions,” we could hear on the show.
Janša first explained that the assembly at that time consisted of three chambers. Each assembly had 80 delegates or deputies, which amounted to a total of 240 votes. Of these 240 votes, 80 votes were needed twice to pass these independence acts. DEMOS or the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, he said, had a regular majority in the Assembly, which meant that it needed opposition votes or the votes of so-called independent deputies, too. “That is why the preparations and coordination took so long. DEMOS had to make a lot of concessions,” he stressed.
The recordings of the assembly meetings show that not everyone was in favour of an independent Slovenia. “A two-thirds majority was achieved, we got 180 votes out of 240 votes, which was 20 more than necessary, but half of not only the opposition, but half of all those who did not represent DEMOS voted against,” he pointed out. He explained that, in relation to achieving a constitutional majority, it means exactly the same thing if someone is absent, does not vote, abstains or votes against. He recalled that some representatives were absent. Franco Juri had written that he would not come to vote. “Some were in the Chamber but did not vote, some abstained, and two even voted against,” he recalled.
The attempts to prevent independence went in three directions
Janša recalled that the attempts to prevent independence had gone in three directions. “First, they wanted to delay our independence because they knew that the Yugoslav People’s Army was ready to intervene the next day, and they wanted to give them as much time as possible. But we needed that day to take over customs, the border, the foreign exchange inspection, all those federal services that the independence acts gave us jurisdiction over, without a shot being fired, without violence,” he pointed out. He added that a Slovenian attack on the Yugoslav authorities would have led to the accusation that we were the first to use force. “Because we wanted to take it by surprise, to take it first, we put them in the situation that if they intervened, they would have to use force first,” he stated, pointing out that there was a desire for formal independence seven days before the announcement.
“That was not possible because they delayed the process so much. They also delayed the meeting itself. They wanted to pause, to postpone the matter, to change the agenda, and then, when that failed, they suggested that the Slovenian Parliament should first offer the other republics of the former Yugoslavia some kind of new Yugoslavia. When this was not accepted either, they wanted to delete everything that referred to defence power from these constitutional acts by means of amendments,” he explained. He recalled that Mile Šetinc of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (Liberalna demokracija Slovenije – LDS) had proposed an amendment that the Ministry of Defence should not take over the weapons and property of the Yugoslav army on our territory, even though we had paid for it ourselves. On the confiscation of Yugoslav arms and tanks, he explained that this would be robbery if there was no legal basis for it. As Janša noted, the opposition did things like that in order to prevent Slovenia from effectively taking over power.
Referring to Kučan’s statement before the vote, Janša recalled, among other things, that they had always warned that the time for preparing for the establishment of a new state was short. He criticised the coordination of work, stating that it was a disgusting conspiracy. “The President of the Presidency acted as the boss of the opposition, which indeed he was, but that was not his role,” he pointed out. He said that in a democracy, you can have a different opinion. “If you stay in office, then you have to work on what the will of the people has imposed on you,” he said. Most cynical, according to Janša, was the claim that preparations were not coordinated with the opposition. “The opposition parties did everything to ensure that no defence measure, which was crucial to safeguarding independence, would be adopted. They voted against the defence budget, the defence law and the conscription law, they demanded the dismantling of the training centres. Even at the last session, where Mr Kučan spoke, they proposed an amendment to leave Slovenia completely bare in the area of defence,” he pointed out.
This was followed by the showing of a recording of Kučan before the meeting, in which he made it clear that this was not a favourable moment for independence and that it would only come when Slovenia was able to effectively take power on its own territory. “We were disarmed on the day the government was sworn in. They prevented us from building our own defences, because they knew that if Slovenia was not able to defend itself, then it would not become independent,” Janša pointed out. He added that this was why they said that first it was necessary to take power effectively, talk to others in Yugoslavia, and then, if that failed, “jump into the pool”. In reference to this, he pointed out, “It was strangely cynical. That is clear especially now that we know all the things that went on and the White Paper documents are available.”
Janša noted that he had received several messages when the video of Kučan’s speech, which was broadcast in the previous episode of the show, went viral. The people writing to him told him that Kučan had not said what he said and that he could not have been talking about Yugoslavia on the day we became independent. However, this is the statement Kučan made on the 25th of June 1991 (video evidence in Slovenian is available at the following link – https://x.com/i/status/1943752789039231197): “I hope that these things are now finally clear also to those who, at the time of the plebiscite and after it, until recently, have been seducing Slovenians with announcements of quick international recognition. I hope that, in order to replace the false hope, we could all together once again give priority to the hard work that made us much more European some time ago, long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and that the Republic of Slovenia will also remain open in advance to attempts to examine the possibility of forming a possible new community of the former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which, however, must be fundamentally different from the present one, because it can only be a community of sovereign states.”
This was followed by a video taken a few days before the war, showing how Kučan was concerned about the authority of the Yugoslav army. He stated that it was necessary to prevent the army from being put in a position where it could be manipulated and abused. “Because to completely lose the authority of the army with the people is also to incapacitate it to carry out those tasks in which, of course, the whole of this community, including us, has an interest during this transition period”, he stressed. Since in this particular case the army was a party army, Janša admitted that he really did not know which things Kučan saw as being in our interest and which the army should still be doing.
Janša believes that every citizen should see a recording of this session, in order to understand how this country came into being. Tomašič announced that it will be broadcast several times on Nova24TV during the summer so that people can watch it. The President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) then recalled that there was a recording of a telephone conversation between Ciril Zlobec, who was a member of the Presidency of the Republic, and the Italian Consul. “It is clear from this conversation that at the same moment when he learned that a surprise tactic was being prepared to take over the country and effective power through a decision of the assembly and immediate action one week before we announce it on the 26th, he told the Italian Consul, who communicated this to Rome. From Rome, this came to Belgrade. This is one of the reasons why General Čad moved earlier,” Janša explained, adding that the left-wing politics, together with Kučan, defended Zlobec to the hilt, despite the betrayal.
The programme then went on to show a clip of the vote on the Basic Constitutional Charter. “You can see from the faces who was happy and who was sad about the adoption of the fundamental constitutional charter,” Janša remarked. Among the sad people, he said, were those who had earlier formally spoken about independence. “But you can also see happy faces on the opposition side, people who applauded, and this must also be acknowledged,” he stressed. This is particularly pronounced among the Liberals, where he singled out Janez Kopač.
Janša pointed out that Slovenia had consistently pursued its independence in accordance with the law and the European and UN charters on the protection of human rights. “That is why no one has ever accused Slovenia in an international forum of anything that they accused all of the others who then became independent on the territory of the former Yugoslavia,” he added, saying that speaking in “Kučan’s terms” (he said that it is not possible to become independent until you have effectively taken power) is playing a double game.
Ž. N.
