Yugoslavia: A History of its Demise - Indymedia

112 WESTERN YUGOSLAVIA REACTS
amendments were contrary to the federal constitution. The Slovenian politicians
and Slovenian public disagreed. Slovenia had merely filled in certain gaps in the
federal constitution. The republics had the right to make their own determination
concerning matters not conclusively regulated by the federal constitution.
Clearly, there seemed suddenly to be a desire to lead a “concerted action”
against Slovenia, orchestrated by Serbia and the army.
There were some problems inside Slovenia, too. The former Slovenian party
chief France Popit protested against the republic’s submission to “antisocialist”
tendencies. 58 Kučan asked Popit to refrain from taking any greater steps and the
feared “rebellion of the Old Guard” did not take place. Under the leadership of
Potrč, the authorized committees of the Slovenian parliament took pains that the
constitutional amendments would, as planned, be brought before the then still
tricameral Slovenian parliament on 27 September.
In the meantime, the campaign from the eastern part of the country reached a
new fury. Tempers in the east were inflamed not least by the clause requiring the
organs of Slovenia “to take into consideration the material possibilities of the
republic in regard to the acceptance of financial obligations connected with the
realization of the functions of the federation”.
If the Serbian media had seemed to be leading the campaign at first, it
suddenly seemed, in the last week of September, that the army leadership was
taking over this function. The army leaders were incensed above all by the new
constitutional article which made the proclamation of a state of emergency in
Slovenia conditional on the approval of the Slovenian parliament. They saw this
as a curtailment of the army’s freedom of movement. So one had to worry about
the army once again. At the instigation of the army leadership, according to
Kučan, the Central Committee of the LCY was hastily convened on the afternoon
of 26 September 1989 for an extraordinary session with only one item of
business: the Slovenian constitutional amendments. The session had been called
so suddenly that the Slovenian members of the CC were unable to obtain any
flights to Belgrade and had to be brought to Belgrade on an army transport plane. 59
There was barely time, before the flight’s departure, to hold a session of the
Slovenian Central Committee.
It was, according to all who took part, a memorable meeting. Yugoslavs could
experience directly on television just how deep the differences had become and
with what tone of voice the country’s leaders spoke with one another. The
Slovenian leaders set forth frankly, perhaps for the first time, everything which
the Slovenes did for Yugoslavia, contrasting this with the accusations that they
wanted to destroy Yugoslavia. With 8 per cent of the population, Slovenia
accounted for 22 per cent of the national income, with a corresponding
contribution to the federal budget. Slovenia further accounted for 30 per cent of
Yugoslavia’s exports to countries with convertible currency and 25 per cent of total
exports. To that one had to add the contributions of Slovenian enterprises to the
fund for the underdeveloped parts of the country.