CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Horvat, Tomaz |
|---|---|
| Title | Historical holidays in a nation state: Slovenes as a majority and as a minority |
| Summary | In 2005, fourteen years after it became independent, Slovenia introduced three new national holidays, each of them celebrating an important event from Slovene national history when a certain Slovene populated region was attached to today’s Slovenia. Two of the new holidays, the “Day of Slovenes in Prekmurje Incorporated into the Mother Nation” and the “Day of Restoration of the Primorska Region to the Motherland” were objected by representatives of the Hungarian and the Italian minorities. Thus the aim of this thesis was to disclose reasons behind the minorities’ objections and to present practical as well as theoretical implications of the dispute between the majority politicians and representatives of the minorities. Standpoints of the majority media have also been taken into consideration during the analysis. Second, Slovene statesmen’s and Slovene media’s attitude towards the celebration of the new Slovene national holidays was compared with their attitude towards celebrations of annual anniversaries of the so called Carinthian plebiscite after which the Slovene minority was to live in Austria. Based on the research we can say that the introduction of the new holidays was not explicitly directed against the minorities, but the latter perceived them as such because their content was in conflict with the minorities’ historical memory and national sentiments. Since their objections were rejected, representatives of both of the national communities had to realize that despite the high level of minority protection in Slovenia the rights of the minorities cannot be equal to those of the majority in a nation-state, especially when the latter wishes to emphasize the connection between the state and the Slovene national territory. Finally, even though Slovene politicians described the results of the Carinthian plebiscite as a loss of the Slovene national territory, the Slovene authorities – as well as Slovene media – are primarily concerned with the unsatisfactory level of minority protection of the Carinthian Slovenes. |
| Supervisor | Pap, Andras |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/horvat_tomaz.pdf |
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