Slovenian President's official speech on the occasion of Slovenian Statehood Day
Ljubljana, 24.6.2008 | press release, speech
 | The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, this morning laid a wreath in memory of the victims killed in the war for an independent Slovenia. In the afternoon, Dr Türk attended a reception for the relatives of members of the Territorial Defence, Ministry of the Interior and civilian war victims killed in the war for Slovenia, and, afterwards, a commemorative session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. President Türk also delivered an official speech at the main state ceremony commemorating Slovenian Statehood Day. |
Official speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, delivered at the main state ceremony commemorating Slovenian Statehood Day
Ljubljana, 24 june 2008
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Fellow Slovenes of Slovenia and around the world,
Fellow citizens of the Republic of Slovenia,
Distinguished guests,
Here, in this historic place, is where our dreams of statehood and full sovereignty for Slovenia were realised. Here, in this place, we every year remember afresh the words of the first President of the independent Republic of Slovenia, Milan Kuèan, who on that historic evening announced the dawning of a new day – a new day which was to be the first of many new days. In this place, we every year look back at the path along which we have travelled and together we think of the challenges of our age and the promise of our future.
The first days of our statehood were difficult ones. We were confronted with the aggression of the Yugoslav Army of the time and the opposition to our right to independence by the majority of the international community. We were forced to prove our right to statehood on the battlefield and over the negotiating table. Those times were a trial of our will, determination and courage and, to no lesser extent, our intellectual capacity, spiritual power, unity, responsibility and statesmanship. Slovenia proved that it lacked none of these. It is precisely because we were able to demonstrate all this as early as the initial weeks of national independence that, later, many other things were greatly facilitated. However, we were spared nothing and we were granted no favours. We earned the right to our own country. That is why we made swift progress and achieved a great deal. Our patriotism had been demonstrated. Our pride is justified.
At today’s celebration, we remember all those who carried the heaviest burden of the gaining of independence: the soldiers and officers of the Territorial Defence, members of the police and many other participants in the war for independence, who safeguarded our statehood. Some lost their lives in battle, some were wounded and some still suffer the consequences. All of them and their families deserve our special gratitude.
The same gratitude should go out to all those who led the war for independence and the associated political and diplomatic activities, demonstrating a strategic skill and wisdom which facilitated a rapid victory with fewer casualties.
Our remembrance of the war for independence includes all its victims, including those serving in the Yugoslav Army who were ordered to fight in an aggressive military operation they neither wanted nor understood, as well as the foreign citizens who were caught up in the harsh reality of the war and lost their lives on our territory. We also regret the terrible suffering of our erstwhile fellow citizens, the victims of conflicts on the territory of a disintegrated Yugoslav Federation. These wars were a warning to the whole of humanity of what can result from the aggression of oppressive nationalism on the part of larger nations at the expense of smaller ones and of the implications of refusing nations the right to self-determination and denying individuals their human rights.
Seventeen years on, we sometimes look back on the beginnings of our state as history, all the more so because our development over the last seventeen years has brought so much that is new. We have made rapid progress and achieved a great deal. We are currently in the final days of a successful six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the large community of European nations which, at the present time, is considered the symbol of peace and security, economic prosperity, political maturity and trust in a better world. Since gaining our independence, we have travelled a significant part of the path of development and found ourselves a place among successful countries. We possess experience, self-confidence and the pride of a nation which took its destiny into its own hands and showed that it knew how to manage it in a responsible manner. Looking back can tell us that today, as we hold the European Union Presidency, we have reached one of the summits in the development of our country and our nation.
However, looking back at the path we have travelled is not the only perspective from which to evaluate our achievements. The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, once said, “Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it is.”
All human endeavours are repeatedly put to the test. This also applies not only to our country but also to all the other EU Member States. At a referendum two weeks ago, Irish voters sent us a signal that the European Union does not meet the democratic expectations of many European citizens. This is a serious message. It is not just an obstacle in the process of finalising the Lisbon Treaty reforming the European Union. It is not just a diplomatic and legal issue which can be solved by diplomats and lawyers, who will, obviously, have to make their contribution. The Irish ‘no’ vote is, above all, an invitation to all the citizens of EU Member States to reflect on the role that should be played by the European Union in helping us find proper answers to global challenges and making us feel that we live at home, in an extended homeland. We need to ask ourselves whether potential democratic and value deficits have emerged in the European Union and if so, how to remedy them. This is particularly relevant for the proposed new institutions – including the President of the European Council – to enjoy the necessary legitimacy and effectiveness.
These questions are not something we should be afraid of. They should be posed candidly and convincing answers found. Rejecting debate and the search for real answers would be an expression of bureaucratic ossification and political shortsightedness. This is not something that we should wish for in Europe, nor is it something that we can afford.
Slovenia is now well integrated into Europe and into the world. It is a part of Europe and the world. It has assumed all the responsibilities this position entails. For such responsibilities, it is neither too small or too inexperienced. Quite the contrary, the size and the relative youth of our country are also advantages. They enable an uncluttered and fresh approach, two aspects which facilitate independent thinking and optimism for the future. We can afford – and, when necessary, we have to be able – to be critical of those larger than ourselves. If someone has to tell the truth to those with the power, then let us be the ones to do so. If we are the ones who have good ideas, let us offer them for consideration. If we have genuine proposals, let us strive for them. Statehood entails responsibility towards our citizens and towards the international community in which we whish to play an active and responsible role.
This is the position to which we, the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia, are committed on account of the state of independence that we are celebrating today, the state of independence which we earned for ourselves and for which we are indebted to no one. The world situation today calls for this upright and self-confident position. We do care about the state of the world today and also tomorrow, since the state of the world situation concerns us directly. We therefore wish to contribute our share to framing and implementing appropriate solutions.
The answers the world needs will not be simple. The age of favourable economic trends, the age of low-cost food that has lasted for almost three decades and the age of moderate oil prices are coming to an end. Climate change is becoming more and more evident and, as such, of greater concern. The current rise in oil and food prices and recent turmoil on international financial markets have begun to threaten the achievement of the millennium development goals set at the turn of the millennium by the United Nations. It will be necessary to look for real development alternatives despite harsher international market competition. It is necessary to look for new ways of living.
However, are we actually ready to shape the necessary answers? And if we find them, are we ready to live in line with them? Since the times of the ancient Greek philosophers, it has been known that humans are incomplete beings and therefore have, with their own awareness and their own will, to do their best to improve their fate. In our times, this means that we have to understand the imperative for the development of humanity as a whole and to adapt our development paradigm to this understanding. Gone is the time of scientific and economic optimism when we were relied on the fact that science itself would, in appropriate market conditions, find solutions to the problems of our future. Nowadays, humanity has access to more information and scientific knowledge than ever before. There are some technologies that promise solutions to the key questions of energy and environmental protection, others could be developed in time. However, scientific development has also created the means to destroy life on this planet and technologies which can destroy the ethical foundations of human society. Science does not provide automatic solutions; it provides tools that should be used with the appropriate wisdom. The market alone is not enough. What is at stake is a modern policy which must be capable of finding the paths that will ensure the survival of mankind and avoid the mistaken byways that lead to its destruction. We have reached the stage where we are capable of considering all this and where we have to do so.
Present-day development challenges have ethical dilemmas at their core. How can we exploit nuclear energy, which many consider can in the medium term help to provide answers to humanity’s energy future, while avoiding the risk of nuclear disaster and the nuclear arms race? How can we use the discoveries of genetics for the benefit of human health while avoiding the dangers of its abuse? How can we provide enough food for humanity and ensure environmental security? How can we define all the necessary environmental solutions while avoiding the dangers of economic regression, which so many fear?
While these questions concern all of us, politics must be aware of them with a special responsibility. The answers to these questions do not lie in moralising. In politics, moralising has frequently turned out to be a byway leading to the danger of decisions that, nominally, claim nobler aims but actually impair human freedoms and democratic participation in decision-making. Only politics which extends the range of human freedom and gives people the means for responsible decision-making can hope to succeed in the quest for the answers demanded by our times. This is why we need reforms in politics, too. This applies to any political community – the international or the domestic Slovenian political community.
This is the challenge faced by all the most important international organisations. They should all thoroughly consider their reforms and change. These questions are our questions, too, and Slovenian foreign policy must focus its attention on them.
The European Union will have to consider its democratic deficit and seek the solutions required by the age and by the role the European Union is obliged to play in the world.
The NATO alliance will have to consider ways to complete its transformation into a collective security organisation and determine its position within the global framework of the United Nations Organisation.
The United Nations Organisation will have to be reformed so as to be able to truly contribute to human security in all fields and to give state sovereignty an appropriate, contemporary meaning. In such a system, sovereignty must not be an exclusive right but, in the first instance, the responsibility of countries who have an obligation to improve human destiny both in their territories and through international cooperation.
In all this, Slovenia has its own place and its share of responsibility.
We Slovenians, too, are obliged to consider all these issues, the future of the world we belong to, and to seek solutions together with others. We Slovenians have never been excluded from global events, not even when we felt most left to ourselves. Our gaining independence seventeen years ago was also part of a global upheaval. The question of whether development would be based on individual liberty or on predetermined communities, including those that curtail human freedom and human rights as was the case in the former Yugoslavia, was a fundamental dilemma of global development. Our independence provided an answer. We were unanimous in opting for the path of extended human freedoms and rights. All our later successes were the fruit of this fundamental choice in favour of freedom and human rights.
We must, therefore, always remain especially sensitive to all actions that affect our civil freedom in any way. The scope of freedom must not be restricted. The world of politics should be open to innovation. It must seek ways for better, more comprehensive connections with citizens and look for more efficient ways of monitoring itself, thereby preventing abuses of power such as corruption, the concentration of power in the hands of the few, and interventions in the most sensitive areas of civil freedom such as freedom of expression. The principle worth respecting in general is that civil freedom and the enforcement of human rights are the most important guarantees of our development.
Throughout our history and in more recent times, we Slovenians have often heard that we need to work more and better for our development. This has long ceased to be the top priority. Nowadays, most of all, we need to think more and better, and know as much as possible. We must do more for the power of our intellect, for our creativity and especially for our ability to think matters through for the common good. These are the abilities that will condition the quality of our development in the twenty-first century. This is why we are encouraging new ways of thinking and innovation in general – in the development of technology, in the development of democratic decision-making and in our way of living. At every level, we must strive for new quality and a higher cultural plane. Cultivating our life is fundamental to development. It is not just about having more but, more especially, about making our lives better. In this sense, we need to grasp the whole range of what constitutes culture, not just the cultural world of the arts and sciences but also the culture of everyday life, the culture of landscape and the culture of care for the environment, the culture of dialogue and communication, and the culture of individual responsibility towards the community as a whole.
This kind of development, however, does not simply come about naturally, by itself. It takes a conscious decision. It takes material investment and changed patterns of behaviour, too. However, taking the decision in favour of such development means setting aside more resources for science and innovation than before. Education ought to be continuously oriented towards boosting quality, and higher education, in particular, must see to it that all its institutions meet the strictest criteria of scientific quality, which is the only guarantee of progress. Healthcare services ought to be developed so as to be universally available and managed with the necessary economy and efficiency. More attention ought to be devoted to the elderly, those that are still in employment and those that have already retired. Young people ought to be offered the broadest possible prospects and the opportunity to lead dignified, independent lives at a sufficiently early stage – this is the only way to integrate them fully into society, to enable them to make a full, creative contribution. It is the only way to bring about solidarity between the generations and for our society to gradually achieve the all too necessary family growth and normalisation of population growth.
Solidarity and responsibility are important values which should be fostered with great care at every level. They are a direct reflection of the status of human rights: the better the human rights situation, the greater the opportunities to develop responsibility and solidarity. The greater the solidarity and responsibility, the better the opportunities for the realize of human rights.
It is my belief that today, just as it was 17 years ago, Slovenia is prepared and able to take on the challenges of the age. However, to achieve such a level of cultivated development we urgently need a decision in favour of quality politics and a high degree of political culture. It seems logical, then, to focus on eliminating the barriers that stand in the way of this kind of development. In our political activities there is still too much exclusion, peevishness and stubborn insistence on one’s own opinion. There is all too little well-reasoned debate, open-minded thinking or readiness to find points of common interest. The latter, however, is the only route enabling the best possible solutions to be found.
Even the level of respect for the authority of the national institutions which are of paramount importance for the supervision of the lawfulness of actions is not entirely satisfactory. The attitudes towards the judiciary which have been developing in our political circles and among the general public and which undermine the authority of that institution raise special concern. Far too often we hear oversimplified cynical assessments at the expense of the work of the law courts. A country that makes a political fad of belittling its courts of law is showing that it does not really count on the rule of law and, thus, on stable and successful development. Adopting such attitudes towards the judiciary and the law is like sawing off the branch upon which we are sitting. This situation needs to be changed.
The lack of compliance with the judgments of the Constitutional Court is particularly disturbing. Currently, as many as seventeen judgments have failed to be implemented. Thirteen require laws to be amended. This is truly disturbing, and points to the weakness of authority of the Constitution. The judgments on the rights of ‘erased’ persons following the break-up of the former Yugoslav Federation are still subject to political manoeuvring and we appear to lack the will to resolve them. Constitutional Court judgements ought to be enforced in the most serious fashion. In mature democracies, where the authority of the judiciary is a self-evident fact, this is perfectly normal. In addition, we will have to amend certain provisions of the Constitution: this is the only way we can establish proper conditions for relieving the burden on the Constitutional Court and ensuring that this Court, like other judicial and State institutions, retains the proper authority due to it.
Tasks on this scale urgently require appropriate commitment on the part of the National Assembly. I firmly believe that the situation in this respect can be improved. Hastiness in adopting majority decisions and the way in which voting strength holds sway over the power of argument also raises concern. Hasty decision-making of this kind even prevailed in the criminal law reform, an area involving potential encroachment on the right to freedom of expression. We must not be satisfied with parliamentary inquiries that are turned into mechanisms for political struggle while failing to ascertain the truth of the matter.
There is no doubt that the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia would like to see political practice and political culture improve. It is, therefore, appropriate today to reflect on the shortcomings of our political life. Alongside Slovenia’s undisputed achievements, we can afford self-critical reflection. More than this, we actually need to do so, as turning a blind eye to the current state of affairs would, ultimately, cost too dear. Our country and our development are at stake here.
So how, then, do we go forward? How do we achieve changes?
We have the self-confidence and pride, the experience and the knowledge. I am firmly convinced that we have the strength to find the common interest and the best options for all of us. Just as we did seventeen years ago, today too we can prove to ourselves and to the world that we deserve our statehood, that we know how to manage it and that we are capable of mature decision-making which takes us forward and helps in our search for global solutions.
The forthcoming elections to the National Assembly are an important opportunity for such decision-making and it would be helpful to practice the values we need for our further development not only in the pre-election period but also after the elections. Slovenia has every reason to prove its ability to leave resentments behind and to allow persuasiveness of argument to prevail. This should not seem like an unattainable or alien concept to us – even in the pre-election campaign. The Slovenian electorate is perfectly capable of understanding a constructive approach and appreciating the persuasiveness of arguments and the quality of proposed solutions as well as the credibility of the candidates who strive for these solutions. This has already been proved in the past and there is no reason why it should not be the same in the future.
Today’s solemn occasion and tomorrow’s celebration of the National Day are a good opportunity to reflect upon our development and the options leading to the improvement of our everyday political life. Seventeen years ago, we were able to reach a common understanding and to jointly find the best path. The challenges we face today demand no less.
This is why the legacy of our act of independence is also important for our future. Let us not forget it! Let us be loyal to it! Let us find joint solutions! We shall succeed!
On this occasion of the celebration of our homeland, this holiday for all Slovenes, let us wish ourselves all the best on our shared path into the future.
Slovenia, the best of luck as you go on your way!