On this day in 1990, in a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia’s overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.

47 comments

  1. Following this referendum, on 25 June 1991, Slovenia became the first republic that split from Yugoslavia and became an independent sovereign state.

    In December 1991, a new constitution was adopted, followed in 1992 by the laws on denationalization and privatization.

    The members of the European Union recognized Slovenia as an independent state on 15 January 1992, and the United Nations accepted it as a member on 22 May 1992.

    Slovenia joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, the same year during which Slovenia also joined NATO. Slovenia subsequently succeeded in meeting the Maastricht criteria and joined the Eurozone (the first transition country to do so) on 1 January 2007.

    It was the first post-Communist country to hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, for the first six months of 2008.

  5. Congrats Slovenia bros, always love visiting your country. Is so beautiful and friendly!

  7. From what I understood, Slovenia was always the wealthiest of the Yugoslavian states. Something like 1/3 of GDP was generated there while it only had a sliver of the population.

    The separation came with a short and, in comparison to later wars in balkans, rather uneventful war, where present day Serbia was the main party interested in preventing the separation, and Croatia kind of took sites with Slovenia. Croatian elements of the Yugoslav army did not participate in Serbia’s campaign so Serbia had thin and weak supply lines towards the Slovenian theatre, preventing them from really engaging in any battle apart from fighter jets who accidentally also strayed a bit into Austria.

    Sadly, the other wars of separation were much more violent than the Ten-Day war of 1991.

  8. Slovenia and Croatia did the right thing. If only Serbian leadership was less criminally insane and let us go our own way peacefully both Slovenia and Croatia would have entered EU in 2004 if not earlier.

  11. What did they profit from this? Is the life got dramatically better there? I don’t know the history of this country, I’m just curious.

  13. I think that this event must be given with a little context. First, Yugoslavia was somewhat of a bipolar state from it’s very inception in 1918, when It was formed by the merging of two states – the SHS state (as a broad union of three former austro-hungarian political bodies) on the north and the Kingdom of Serbia on the south. Politically both parts always diverged, the north being more industrialized and developed and more in favour of decentralization, while the south being less developed and more in favor of centralization. This duality was somewhat swept under the rug after 1945, but those tendencies persisted within the Union of communists of Yugoslavia. Tito had such an authority to keep the different factions at bay, but after his death in 1980, those factions reemerged and their internal fights were just getting stronger as the economic situation of the federation was deteriorating. In the end, as paradoxically as it sounds from an ideological point of view, nationalism begun to flourish in most factions of the communists to varying degrees. At the end of the 80’s the the Serbian leadership attempted to gradually hijack the federal institutions, put this together with ad exceptional inflationary economic crisis and the recipe for breakup was ready. Despite numerous attempts by many sides to reform the federation (and keep it as a confederation), all the attempts were in vain. In the end the Slovenian and Croatian leadership had no other choice but to leave this economic and political chaos that Yugoslavia was falling into, which was eased by the prospect that they could one day join the EU and find a geopolitical “safe haven” in another kind of union.

  14. I wonder what Yugoslavia would be today if it evolved into a socially democratic capitalistic country and had at least somewhat capable successor to Tito. I’m from Slovenia and older people often reminisce of the Yugoslav time, especially during 1st of May (Workers day) and other holidays that were celebrated during Yugoslav days.

    They often say things were done more in a community oriented way and differences in society weren’t as big as today, though Slovenia is still one of the better countries in Europe in terms of equality.

    You just wonder if cultural differences could have been set aside before war split the country into separate groups.

  15. It was 1300 years in the waiting for our own independent state after the fall of Karantania.

    Most of the political leadership back then admitted they were kind of surprised it happend as so many much larger nations in Europe were absorbed into another nation state.

  16. Glad to see Slovenia blossom to its potentiaL! I love visiting Slovenia, they are in many ways a brother to Austria.

  19. Living in Jugoslavija was nice, but it is even better now.

    Still a weird feeling to be older than your ~~nation~~ country.

  29. Too bad we still have so many (maybe even more than a few years ago) that want socialism back. Kinda depressing to see, really. Hopefully the trend changes.

  32. And has since become the strongest Democracy in the Balkans though that could be under threat as it’s current PM is quite questionable

  34. I think its kinda weird to think that Slovenia is older than any other post-Yugoslavian state, like Serbia.

  40. Shame about the flag. tl;dr nobody really liked it, it was rushed through a day before the independence so we could have our own flag to raise at the ceremony, but then the war happened and once you fight for a flag, you’re kinda stuck with it.

  43. Happy birthday from Serbia! Slovenia is beautiful! Yugoslavia didn’t work out and you were right to break up. I get the impression that the 2 countries are quite friendly towards each other now, and I’m glad it is that way.

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