THIS EVENING DREAMS ARE ALLOWED. TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY
Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Slovenia (video in slovenian language)
Speech by the President of the Presidency Milan Kucan

Ljubljana, The Square of the Republic, 26 June 1991


"We have lived with many a person in a community. In our consciousness borders do not represent a trench. We have always been open for spiritual and other currents. Borders have been laid down for us by others, who forced us to go where we did not want to go. Now a Europe is being born which can no longer live with borders. It cannot distinguish between large and small but only between large and small but only between good and bad, creative and incapable, those which pull and those which block progress. Without burdens and under patronage to no-one, with total responsibility and as an equal among equals we wish and want to be included in it. Not damaging anyone but acting for good and alliance of the Slovene future and post-Helsinki Europe."

"We have been capable of accomplishing the task because our faith was firm and because there were no evil thoughts in our actions. Thank you for this, dear fellow countrymen.

This evening, dreams are allowed. Tomorrow is a new day."

Through birth man acquires the right to dreams. Through work he acquires the right to draw life and dreams together. Yesterday we linked the two together; for ourselves, for many generations of Slovenes, who long ago dreamt those same dreams and for future generations, who will build a new world upon those dreams.

Since yesterday we Slovenes have our own state. From today the greater part of the Slovene nation lives in its own independent and sovereign state. Slovenes in border areas from Trieste, Gorica and Venetian Slovenia, across Carinthia to the Porabje, areas to which a harsh history has cut them off, and fellow countrymen, the scattered throughout the whole world, now have in the Republic of Slovenia their mother country and support.

Today's ceremonial declaration of the free and independent state of Slovenia is an inescapable and deeply thought out, unanimous act by this nation, of its inclusion in the modern, liberal-minded Europe of the eighteenth century onwards, of its faithfulness to the political programme of a united Slovenia, of its decisions on the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and above all of the anti-Fascist struggle for national survival and of its honourable contribution to a free, democratic Europe during the last war. Throughout this history we have not contracted debts to anyone. Our history is honourable and clean.

The step which we took yesterday was not dictated to us by a tendency towards isolation, nor a deceptive hope in a finer, more comfortable life bestowed in some other state community. So far history has not presented us with any gift. We had to achieve everything with hard work. For this reason we also maintained our existence. Our own people by ourselves. This act was dictated to us by the awareness of responsibility for the very existence of the Slovene nation and the democratic nature of the Slovene future. We bear it now with honour and upright posture.

We have lived with many a person in a community. In our consciousness borders do not represent a trench. We have always been open for spiritual and other currents. Borders have been laid down for us by others, who forced us to go where we did not want to go. Now a Europe is being born which can no longer live with borders. It cannot distinguish between large and small but only between large and small but only between good and bad, creative and incapable, those which pull and those which block progress. Without burdens and under patronage to no-one, with total responsibility and as an equal among equals we wish and want to be included in it. Not damaging anyone but acting for good and alliance of the Slovene future and post-Helsinki Europe.

Today's world demands a different kind of relation ship between the nations which live in Southeast Europe. Consensus between sovereign states provides a firmer guarantee for peace, stability and progress. We have not seceded. We have not gone somewhere else, we have not burnt bridges behind us. We have not destroyed what was in our community good and pleasant for all of us. We have realized a way of life that has a future in the nascent, united old continent. May dynamic distance link us together. It will enable us to consider and respect one another, to cooperate and take steps for joint action. To the good of all and with the desire of all.

As creators of the European tradition for a thousand years, we confirm our affiliation to all that is good in this tradition. We give in advance our moral signature to all the conventions that ensure human freedom, social justice and dignified life, cultural progress, protection of living space, every kind of opennes and pluralism of thought. Everything on which stands the best in our civilization. We have never used force against anyone. We reject violence in all its forms and aims in relations between people, between nations and their states.

With yesterday's declaration of sovereign Slovenia we bind ourselves in an extremely far-reaching way. In good and bad times! Hard trials await us, testing our persistence, consistency, democracy, creativity, inventiveness and faithfulness to the goal to which we are bound. Democracy, freedom, respect for human dignity and human rights, respect for minorities and immigrants, openness and cooperation with others, these are the values to which we remain for ever bound. Generations of Slovenes were bound to them before us, for they are the same as the aspirations of all free, democratic people and nations throughout the world. May this just and moral concept strengthen us in wisdom, decisiveness and action. May it direct our path in the future. So that we shall not totter at every step. The fundamental truth was and remains that the freedom and dignity of the individual is indivisible and inseparable from the sovereignty of the nation. Whoever renounces the one also sacrifices the other.



Today is our great holiday. We desired to share our joy with all, including those who long ago recorded such a day in their history. We now enter the family of free, independent nations. We cannot understand how this could disturb anyone, when for everyone we have an open heart and a hand outstretched in greeting. Our joy is clouded. Our good intentions are denied by the unfounded reproaches of others and the threat of repression from the Yugoslav authorities. It is possible thus to wipe out all that Slovenia shared in good times and bad with the others with whom we lived in a common state? We threaten no-one. There is therefore no need for planes over our cities nor tanks on our streets. Force is shown by those who lack arguments and sober judgment. If their desire to remain together is sincere, then they could not have chosen more unfortunate objects than weapons, and they should have known long ago that we are not afraid.

Non-understanding in some parts of Yugoslavia and the opposition of foreign officialdom lay upon us the serious task of grappling with the decision accepted. We do not have great illusions. We remain alone with ourselves. And with friends who have not become frightened and have not betrayed us. Now we must weight up what we really are and what we are capable of doing. Probably in different conditions we could mature further and connect our fate more with that of others, with their help and understanding. Both would be and of course will be necessary for us. But in such a way we have managed by ourselves. We are a mature nation that knows what it wants, that also knows that this is our fundamental right, both human and national. Indeed a new chapter is beginning in our life and in the history of the Slovene nation. Today we have the right to inscribe at the top of a clean sheet - the independent, democratic Slovene Republic.

May it live, may it rejoice our hearts, may it strengthen us in agreement with the best tradition for the happiness of all us Slovenes, of all the citizens of Slovenia, of Slovenes in the border areas and elsewhere in the world, and for the happiness and success of all whom we shall meet in friendly fashion on the long journey to the future, as we help each other and cooperate.

We have been capable of accomplishing the task because our faith was firm and because there were no evil thoughts in our actions. Thank you for this, dear fellow countrymen.

This evening, dreams are allowed. Tomorrow is a new day.