Beginnings of Political Pluralism in Post- Yugoslav Slovenia

The Question of Political Succession of the Slovenian People’s Party Led by Anton Korošec

Abstract

This paper presents attempts of the Slovene conservative political parties at the onset of political pluralism in Slovenia toward the end of the 1980s to establish the continuity with the Slovenian People’s Party from the time when it was led by Anton Korošec. By doing so, the conservative parties tried to diminish staffing, organizational, and program implications resulting from the lack of political activity after the end of the Yugoslav single-party socialist system. However, the changed political, economic, and cultural circumstances in independ- ent Slovenia required new ways of addressing the electorate. As a result, the new Slovenian People’s Party and the Slovenian Christian Democrats were unable to generate the political capital that had enabled the former Slovenian People’s Party to assume the position of the political representative of the Slovene people in the multinational and multi-confessional country. The text next explores the relationship between the conservative political parties and the Catholic Church.