A Year of Scandals

Among the larger failures of 1994, we must count the unsuccessful activities of Slovenian diplomacy (led until the end of the year by Lojze Peterle, the leader of the Demo-Christians who were heartily criticized by prime minister Janez Drnovsek's LDS, and Dimitrij Rupel, Peterle's predecessor to the post of foreign minister). Peterle's diplomatic fiascoes resulted in a new blockade by Italy during the last meeting of European Union Council ministers, at a time when the debate on Slovenia's membership in the EU was to have been opened. 1994 didn't lack scandals: arms trading, military commandos beat up civilians in a Ljubljana suburb, police commandos staged a robbery in Celovec. There was an attempt at exporting arms through Iskra's "Fotona" to Iran via Austria, an undeclared war between the Interior Ministry and the Defence Ministry secret services, the granting of illegal housing credit to deputies, ministers and others, all of which was certainly not to the credit of the former Yugoslavia's most progressive republic.

Even though domestic politicians would prefer it if Slovenia were talked about at home and abroad as a success story, the above-mentioned scandals were the headlines which filled newspapers in the last few months and resulted in the resignation of some ministers.

However, the achievements are not negligible. The state administration has been renewed, the first truly independent judges have been elected with unlimited mandates, a new Penal Code has been adopted, the Financial Court has been founded and the construction of new highways has finally started. Slovenia's foreign currency reserves in October 1994 reached 2.6 billion dollars (in October 1991 they stood at a mere 170 million dollars) and after five years of stagnation industrial production has shown growth for the first time. Foreign currency can be bought at any bank or exchange office. Average salaries stand at 600 DEM. A contract on free trade has been signed with members of the (Central European) Visegrad Group. In 1994 Slovenia became a member of CEFTA and thereby found a partial substitute for the market it lost with the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Slovenia has also become a member of EFTA and the World Trade Organization; an agreement on cooperation has been signed with the EU and it has become a candidate for NATO membership within the Partnership for Peace Program.

And finally, the only thing that hasn't changed in the last few years are relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which are still a moot issue.