---
title: "Janša's speech in Koper: Sovereignty Day or a day for old grievances?"
date: 2026-10-26T03:26:27Z
modified: 2026-10-26T03:28:20Z
permalink: "https://www.had.si/blog/en/2026/10/26/jansas-speech-in-koper-sovereignty-day-or-old-grievances/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: At the Sovereignty Day state ceremony in Koper, Janez Janša called for freedom and unity while revisiting old ideological divisions, the Erased, Palestinian flags and political opponents.
wpid: 390947
categories:
  - reflections
tags:
  - reflections
  - Janez Janša
  - "Janša's speech"
  - koper
  - Nataša Pirc Musar
  - Slovenian independence
  - Sovereignty Day
  - state ceremony
  - the Erased
  - english
  - pll_6adec8a8ed3ef
language:
  - english
post_translations:
  - pll_6adec8a8ed3ef
featured_image: "https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/janez.jpg"
featured_image_alt: Janez
timestamp: 2026-10-26T03:28:20Z
---

Janez Janša spoke about freedom, unity and Slovenia’s future at the Sovereignty Day state ceremony in Koper. Yet he devoted a substantial part of his speech to communism, red stars, the Erased, migrants, Palestinians and his political opponents. As though, 35 years after independence, we still cannot celebrate our own country without reopening every ideological front. Janez has clearly lost his way in time and space somewhere around 1991.

- [Hats off to Nataša Pirc Musar! A state ceremony is not a right-wing party rally](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/kapo-dol-natasa-pirc-musar.md)
- [The Palestinian flag is not the Hamas flag, and Palestine supporters are not terrorists](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/zastava-palestine-ni-zastava-hamasa-in-podporniki-palestine-nismo-teroristi.md)
- [Janez Janša denied the genocide in Gaza and offered a photograph from Gaza as proof](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/janez-jansa-zanikal-genocid-v-gazi-in-za-dokaz-pokazal-fotografijo-iz-gaze.md)
- [Rise up, Primorska. Enough rewriting our history](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/vstani-primorska-dovolj-je-prepisovanja-nase-zgodovine.md)

He began almost poetically. Seagulls, the sea, Slovenia’s free coastline and memories of 1991. Then, rather quickly, we landed in Janša’s familiar world, where there are two Slovenias. One supposedly deserves credit for independence, while the other allegedly never truly embraced an independent Slovenia.

It is quite something to hear a prime minister speak about the harm caused by exclusionary politics while himself linking some of his fellow citizens to the erosion of the values of Slovenian independence. That is the central contradiction of his speech. The section on the Erased particularly bothered me.

Janša spoke about people who did not want Slovenian citizenship and later declared themselves to be among the Erased. But erasure is not a matter of self-declared identity. In 1992, 25,671 people were removed from the register of permanent residents. The European Court of Human Rights found that their rights had been violated, and Slovenia was required to establish a compensation scheme. Those are not ideological opinions, but court findings.

The economic part of the speech also deserves some attention. Janša explained that in 2008 we stood at 91 per cent of the European average for GDP per capita in purchasing power terms, and that today we are roughly back where we were. That, had we kept up the pace of the time, we could be almost like Switzerland. But a relative indicator does not mean the country made no economic progress in the intervening period. It is also interesting that, when listing the lost years, he gives considerably less space to the fact that he himself led the Slovenian government several times during that period.

The Palestinian flags formed a chapter of their own. He linked them to communist symbols and violent protests across Europe. But a flag in itself is not proof of support for violence, still less proof of opposition to Slovenian independence. Equally simplistic was the explanation linking the Srebrenica genocide and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine to uncondemned communism. Historical connections can be analysed, but events that complex cannot be explained by a single cause. But that is enough for his voters. They understand simple things.

Janša concluded with the thought that we must leave future generations more freedom, security, opportunity and peace. That is an aim one can agree with. But how are we meant to build a shared future when we are still arguing over who deserves enough credit for our shared past and who has the right to its symbols?

Slovenia became independent in 1991. It was an achievement of people with different political convictions, not the property of one party or one man. Sovereignty Day should be an opportunity to remember that. Not yet another chance to prove who alone has the right to interpret Slovenian history.