A Notable Difference

One no longer suspects but that the election campaign which has scarcely begun in Slovenia will proceed in mutual party hassles over "real" and "wrong" decisions related primarily to Slovenia's independence and ten-day "war" last year. The Slovene Parliament has decided to make the drive even more fun; it has not yet adopted the Election Campaign Act, so the main rules of the pre-election game are still not clear.

What is additionally unclear is how will control over the inflow of resources from abroad be exercised, what are the main sources of financing for certain (right-wing) parties. Last year, rare were the parties (e.g. the former "youth" and today Drnovsek's Liberal Democratic Party) which made public their accounts; the majority, primarily those comprising DEMOS, simply forgot about this obligation despite the provisions of the electoral law. Unlike European democracies, this year again it is possible in Slovenia to finance the campaigns of certain parties from dubitable sources in the domestic or foreign economy, and from the emigration (even above the limit set by the law). Neither will the country lack in published, "custom-made" public opinion polls and election posters.

The citizens of Slovenia will vote, according to the proportionate electoral system, for 90 members in the state assembly (the lower house in parliament), for the state council (comprising 22 members, local representatives) and, for the first time, for the president of the republic. Most important are the elections in 8 constituencies for the "state assembly", although no less important is the election of the republic's president. All parties have already presented their candidates.

It is interesting to observe that not much attention has been spent so far on stressing the program differences between the parties, rather everything is focusing on launching slogans. The most persistent are Rupel's Democrats. The Democrats' enormous posters have covered most of the panels in the streets, squares, and by the roadsides. They bomb people with unequivocal messages - a crossed out "YU" car sticker on left-hand side, and a green "SLO" sticker on the right; beneath is the following slogan: "A notable difference". The Liberal Democratic Party entered the election race with the slogan "Slovenia - A Tale of Success" ...

The Democrats' message that the difference between "YU and SLO is notable" was obviously in the right vein, since in public opinion polls they raised their initial two to ten percent of potential votes. However, rare economists alone are warning that the difference in Slovenia really is "notable" but in the negative sense. They anticipate a social crisis, resulting from a reduced market and the impossibility of the economy to adapt faster to new conditions, to reach its peak after the elections. Slovenia is still far from its European dream, as witness the solitary protest of a jester who, at the exit on the Austrian side of the Karavanken tunnel, put up next to the "A" sticker a crossed-out "SLO" sticker and wrote: "A notable difference".