IDEES, revista de temes contemporanis

Sovereignty and stability

While Milan Kučan was in office, Slovenia went from being a Socialist republic forming part of Yugoslavia to being the politically most stable Balkan state, well-positioned to join the European Union and NATO. Kučan will be in Barcelona to speak about his experience in such an exceptional process.

Following a referendum, a unilateral declaration of independence and a war lasting ten days and claiming 40 victims, Slovenia, the westernmost republic of Yugoslavia, achieved secession in 1991 without experiencing the dramatic episodes of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The process was led by Milan Kučan (Krizevci, 1941).

Trained as a lawyer, Kučan took his first steps in politics in the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. He reached the highest positions, from where he fostered the separation of the Slovenian communists from the Yugoslav parent to found a democratic and reformist party. As a political leader he brought about the first multi-party elections and embraced the pro-independence option. He was chosen as the first democratic President of Slovenia in 1990, with three consecutive terms of office until 2002. Under Kučan Slovenia not only became a sovereign state, but also enjoyed a political stability which was enviable in the area, and which led to it joining the European Union in 2004.

Milan Kučan will be present in the conference “Architects of the new Europe”, organized by the Centre d’Estudis de Temes Contemporanis, on the 7 and 8 October in Barcelona.