Sociologist and journalist / Chilean

Twenty-five years of independence can be considered either a short or long period, depending on the aspect from which the period is assessed and analysed. It is a relatively long period for the young people who were born and raised in the new country. But it is also a short one viewed from the historical perspective and  the development of democracy, which is understood as a system of values defining social relations. The formation of an independent Slovenia was definitely a ground breaking moment. With that, a new ideological development framework and a new milestone for both civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights were set. From this perspective, independence means discontinuity in terms of territory and the state and also in the sense of the regime. 

It is an ungrateful task to compare both periods not only because it would be impossible to ignore the subjective views, but also because the world changed over the last twenty-five years through the onset of new technologies, the globalization, and the absolute dominance of financial capital. During this time, new international relationships were established, Slovenia became a member of the United Nations and also a member of NATO, the European Union and OSCE, and it adopted the euro as its currency. From this perspective, Slovenia has become a fully-fledged and recognized international entity, but not so much through its own perspective. 

With the economic crisis in 2008, Slovenian political elite gradually abandoned the idea or the first steps of a national project – if it ever really existed. Instead, it adopted a neoliberal ideological paradigm, which not only annihilated the last remnants of the previous regime, although some were positive and compatible with the market system, but the country also started to downsize the state welfare which was still present during the development of the capitalist system right after Slovenia had acquired its independence. 

The market system and the capital boost were set as an absolute paradigm, competitiveness as the main and only possible guidance, while the development of the internal market and improvement of the quality of life were ignored. The logic of competitiveness led to a savings policy, the socialization of private financial debts, and selling off of the social economy, especially companies that are or represent the Slovenian crown jewels, all this without considering the role played by these elements in the development of the national economy. This is now followed by the tendency to privatize the social, cultural, educational and health services and goods, and to reform the labour market in favour of precarious work at the expense of workers' rights. All this leads to the income concentration, greater inequality and pauperization, de-industrialization and, sooner or later, to social polarization. Politics has become a reality show designed to market its own products. For policy-makers and authorities, this is a practical means for achieving their narrow (and personal) economic interests. All this represents a fertile ground for corruption and creation of a vicious circle.

As an immigrant who has lived and worked in Slovenia for more than 40 years, these anomalies that are the plague of today's Slovenian society, does not make me optimistic at the time of the 25th anniversary of independence. I think that society without utopia or its own visions does not have a future, and much less so in a world that is sliding into a kind of feudalism.