Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies
In December 1990, during the period when Slovenia was moving towards its
independence, an important assurance concerning the linguistic situation and linguistic
rights of members of the former Yugoslav nations came from the Assembly of the
Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Before the plebiscite on Slovenia’s independence and
sovereignty, the Assembly issued the “Proclamation to all citizens of the RS and all the
voters in the RS”, inviting them to take part in the plebiscite on 23 December 1990.
In the accompanying Declaration of Good Intentions it stated, among other things,
that the Slovenian state would ensure “to all members of other nations the right to
multifarious cultural and linguistic development”.
The new Constitution of Sovereign Slovenia, adopted in December 1991, laid down
the new formal framework determining the linguistic situation of other nations of
the former Yugoslavia living in Slovenia. Article 11 of the constitution states that the
official language in Slovenia is Slovene, along with Italian and Hungarian in the areas
inhabited by the Italian and Hungarian minorities. Article 62 states that everyone “has
the right to use his language and script in a manner provided by law in the exercise of
his rights and duties and in procedures before state and other authorities performing a
public function”. The Constitution of Sovereign Slovenia no longer mentions members
of other nations of the former Yugoslavia or their linguistic rights.
The reasons for the inferior knowledge of Slovene among first-generation immigrants
from the former Yugoslavia lie not only in the formal constitutional and
legal regulations that were in place while Slovenia was still part of the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), but also in the living and working
conditions of immigrant workers. Silva Mežnarić described these in the book
entitled “Bosanci.” A kuda idu Slovenci nedeljom (“Bosnians”. And Where Do
The Slovenians Go On Sundays), presenting the findings of a 1983 research
study that examined the situation of workers from other republics of the then
Yugoslavia living in Slovenia.
Below is how one of the interviewees described his living situation at the time:
“Yeah, it’s a bit difficult to get quite used to it, because we are all alone in the
flat, without, like, any potential cooperation from the outside (...) there should
be a bit more of a sort of cooperation, say, among local people and people from
other republics, I don’t know, connections could be better and we could visit each
other, a bit more of cooperation in some way – but as it is, you come as if you fell
out of the sky, fell from a plane, and as long as there’s a need, you work, when
there’s no need, then when once … when you don’t work you have to travel home,
from home to the apartment, from the apartment home, and to work, you have
nothing else” (Mežnarić, 1986: 8-11).
Another worker’s answer indicated the linguistic situation of the time:
“I can’t speak Slovene, I say it straightforward, you know…”
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