Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, also known as DEMOS (in Slovenian: ''Demokratična opozicija Slovenije''), was a coalition of

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

political parties created by an agreement between the Slovenian Democratic Union, the Social Democrat Alliance of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Democrats, the Farmers' Alliance, and the Greens of Slovenia. All these parties emerged in late 1989, when the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

government permitted multiparty political life in

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. The leader of the coalition was the well-known

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

Jože Pučnik Jože Pučnik (9 March 1932 – 11 January 2003) was a Slovenian public intellectual, sociologist and politician. During the communist regime of Josip Broz Tito, he was one of the most outspoken Slovenian critics of dictatorship and lack of civil ...

. In the first democratic elections in April 1990, DEMOS won 54% of the votes and formed the first multiparty government of the country, headed by the Christian Democrat Lojze Peterle. The coalition led the process of democratization of the country, the liberalization of public life, and the implementation of a

market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...

. The most important achievement of the coalition, however, was the declaration of Slovenia's independence on 25 June 1991, followed by the Ten-Day War, in which the

ns rejected Yugoslav military interference. As a result of internal disagreements, the coalition fell apart in 1992. It was officially dissolved in April 1992 in agreement with all the parties that had composed it. Following the collapse of Lojze Peterle's government, a new coalition government led by Janez Drnovšek was formed, which included several parties of the former DEMOS.

became vice-president in Drnovšek's cabinet, guaranteeing some continuity in government policies.

References

External links

Path to Slovene State
Anti-communist organizations Defunct political party alliances in Europe Organizations of the Revolutions of 1989 Political opposition alliances Political party alliances in Slovenia Slovenian Spring {{Slovenia-party-stub

See also

References

External links