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The issue of a revised constitution emerged on centre stage when former Prime Minister and opposition leader Janez Janša stated that only comprehensive constitutional changes would prevent Slovenia's social stagnation in the years ahead. Never one for understatements, Janša even called for the creation of a "Second Republic" in Slovenia.

Towards a Second Republic

According to Janša, a clean break with the past is necessary to end a system that has allowed post-communist tycoons to take advantage of legislative loopholes and amass great wealth through highly questionable practices. In Janša's view, increased regulation has had some positive effects, but only structural reforms can close all of the loopholes that he argues were intentionally created during Slovenia's transition to a free-market democracy.

Janša points out that judicial backlogs are a significant problem, and have resulted in a lack of prosecutions in white-collar criminal cases. According to Janša, the public is losing faith in the legal system and the judiciary can only be effectively overhauled by changing the constitution.

Janša would like to see the revised constitution address controversial historical issues, namely Slovenia's attitude towards the communist era. Citing Ljubljana city council's recent decision to name a street after Yugoslav-era leader Josip Broz Tito, Janša wondered how the city could name a street after a man "who is certainly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands people" in the aftermath of World War II. In Janša's view, the revised constitution should ban the glorification of totalitarian regimes.

Other changes proposed by Janša include compulsory secondary schooling and the elimination of media monopolies.

Grabbing Attention

If Janša's decision to present these proposals as a call for a Second Republic was made at least in part to generate considerable media attention, the strategy has certainly been a success. In the days following his announcement, Slovenia's newspapers and pundits jumped at the chance to explain what his suggestions actually mean.

Mainstream media outlets were quick to note the ideological nature of the proposals. The daily Delo acknowledged that some of Janša's ideas make sense, but that the overall plan is merely "a medley of sketchy ideas of predominately ideological nature."

The center-left Dnevnik was even more critical. According to the daily, the proposals "should be understood as an attempt by Janša to use the deepening economic crisis and subsequent distress of a growing number of Slovenians to secure political points." Dnevnik points out that Janša's call for an overhaul of the constitution came just six months after the former Prime Minister argued that the country was not in a economic crisis.

The daily Večer praised some of Janša's suggestions, including the proposal to speed up the formation of new governments. However, the paper was more critical of other proposals, such as the idea to ban the glorification of totalitarian regimes. More than anything else, however, Večer criticized Janša's general approach, warning that his rhetoric could inflame public passions and result in a political crisis.

In fact, even center-right observers, while praising the content of Janša's proposals, ended up distancing themselves from some of the rhetoric. Gregor Virant, the head of the pro-Janša group Assembly for the Republic, described the call for a Second Republic as a "marketing term." Former Constitutional Court Judge Tone Jerovšek, while pointing out that some of Janša's ideas could easily be carried out in the future, nevertheless emphasized that they do not amount to a "Second Republic" and that many of them do not even belong in the constitution.

Changes on the Way

Still, Janša's speech caught the imagination of other politicians. President Danilo Türk was quick to send out a letter proposing a cross-party discussion of the proposed constitutional changes. The president wants to start a national dialogue on the changes, which would involve political parties, civil organisations, as well as various experts.

However, while President Türk stated that he would consider Janša's ideas, his letter emphasized an earlier initiative to overhaul the constitution - that proposed by Tine Hribar, a widely respected public intellectual. Hribar presented his vision of a "21st Century Constitution" months before Janša's speech, albeit to a far more muted public response. Hribar announced that a group of experts and intellectuals, including France Bučar, widely known as the father of Slovenia's first constitution, will take a year or two to deliberate on a possible overhaul of the constitution. According to Hribar, the new constitution could help bridge the rift in Slovenian society caused by World War II and "consider the fundamental values of humanity to a greater extent than the existing constitution," although most specific changes remain a mystery.

With Slovenia facing an ever-deepening economic crisis and increasing public dissatisfaction with the status quo, its present constitution could look very different once the country grows out of its teen years.