26 December 2000 - Independence Day and 10th Anniversary of the Plebiscite
On 26 December ten years ago, the results of a plebiscite were announced officially, with the inhabitants of the Republic of Slovenia having decided on 23 December 1990 with a great majority of votes that the Republic of Slovenia should become an independent and sovereign country. In line with that decision, on 25 June 1991 the Slovenian Assembly passed the fundamental independence acts and on the next day declared Slovenia's independence. One year after the plebiscite, on 23 December 1991, the adoption of the new Constitution of independent Slovenia laid the foundation stone of the new legal system.
Slovenian statehood and its efforts for independence have long-standing roots, which were already strengthened by the pluralisation of culture and science at the end of the 70s and at the beginning of the 80s. This pluralisation came sooner than the political one and gave rise to strong political movements of civil society. Politics and business people joined the opposition in moves towards democratisation in the second half of the 80s. No. 57 of the Nova revija magazine, the military trial held against four civilians (the "JBTZ trial") and the consequential foundation of the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights accelerated the founding of new political parties. The latter required, clearer than the official Slovenian authorities, a sovereign Slovenian state and a change in the Slovenian Constitution in order to ensure political pluralism, economic sovereignty and the right of self-determination. Despite the opposition from the Yugoslav authorities, in 1989 Slovenia enacted a multi-party system, while in the following year the first multi-party elections were held in Slovenia, won by the DEMOS coalition (an alliance formed from the newly emerged political parties). The founding session of the new Assembly took place on 17 May 1990.
In discussions on Slovenia's position in the SFRY, in the beginning of 1990 there was still talk about a confederation, but later Slovenia decided on a plebiscite and an independent and sovereign country. On 2 July 1990, the Assembly adopted the declaration on Slovenia's sovereignty. It also dissolved the Slovenian delegation in the Yugoslav federal assembly. On 21 November 1990, the Assembly adopted the Law on a Referendum on Slovenia's Independence, which took place on 23 December 1990.
All-nation Plebiscite - 88.2 Percent Supported a Sovereign and Independent Country
At the plebiscite on 23 December 1990, Slovenian citizens decided, by an absolute majority, for a sovereign and independent country, which would no longer be joined in the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Voter turnout at the plebiscite was 93.2 percent, with 88.2 percent voting for an independent and sovereign Slovenia. The results of the plebiscite were officially declared on 26 December 1990 - it is on this day that Slovenia now celebrates its Independence Day.
In line with this decision, the Slovenian Assembly passed the fundamental independence acts on 25 June 1991, and one day later declared independence. The fundamental independence act was the Basic Constitutional Charter on the Independence and Sovereignty of the Republic of Slovenia.
The declaration of independence was followed by a ten-day war, won by Slovenia, but the Slovenian Assembly adopted the Brioni Declaration, with which it froze the further implementation of the independence acts. After the end of the moratorium, on 8 October 1991 Slovenia finally started to operate as a fully independent country. It introduced its own currency, established control of all its borders and passed a new Constitution, on 23 December 1991, which laid the foundation stone of the new legal system, based mainly on the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the principles of the rule of law and social state, parliamentary form of state authority and the principle of dividing the power into legislative, executive and judicial branches.
In 1992, Slovenian statehood was established and invigorated; Slovenia became an internationally recognised country, a member of the UNO and many other international organisations. In December 1992, the most important events were the presidential and parliamentary elections, meaning the final farewell to the old political system.
In honour of 23 December 1991, when the first Constitution of the independent Slovenia was passed, the Constitutional Court declared Constitutional Day in 1997.