Slovenia Blog Post 1

Blog Post 1

February 4, 2026

The National Self

When Slovenia made their first ever appearance in the Eurovision stage in 1993, they were a

newly independent country making its voice heard on a European cultural stage. That was not a

musical voice, but a symbolic one. Slovenia, which had just gained its independence from newly

broke-up Yugoslavia in 1991, had to assert itself as a unified and national entity.

Firstly, we have to define National Identity. National identity is the way a community can

visualize itself as a nation by having a common culture, values, symbols, and stories. Nations

are not objectivities of people, nor are they permanent but are instead imagined communities,

whose membership is constituted by people telling stories together, symbolically and reinforced

by institutions (Anderson, 1983). Anthony D. Smith builds on this by pointing out that national

identity is created by common myths, memories, values, and symbols that enable individuals to

identify themselves as belonging to the same group (Smith, 1991).

Currently, The Slovenian national identity is most easily comprehended in terms of language,

historical accounts and strategic divisions with other countries. Such pillars of identity represent

internal ideals as well as general politics generally towards Slovenia’s positioning between

“Europe” and “the Balkans.”. This relational aspect is captured clearly in Anna Triandafyllidou’s

concept of the significant Other. According to Triandafyllidou, nations define themselves by

constructing boundaries against external or internal groups that are perceived as threatening

their authenticity or cohesion (Triandafyllidou, 2001). These Others help define the limits of

belonging. In Slovenia’s case, both the external “Balkan” space and internal minority groups

inherited from the Yugoslav period have played key roles in shaping national identity. In this

sense, identity is relational. Who “we” are depends heavily on who “we” are not.

The role of the significant Other by Anna Triandafyllidou locates this relationality at the core of

how nations are constructed in opposition to the external or internal group in order to establish

limits that define belonging (Triandafyllidou, 2001). This process is reflected in identity discourse

in Slovenia. The outside (the Balkans, non-European space) and the inside (ethnic minorities

who existed during the Yugoslav period) can contribute to a sense of identity as Slovenians

understand it. The language is one of the most obvious and persistent elements of the

Slovenian national identity. Language is essentially the core of cultural unity. Slovene is a South

Slavic language which is used by approximately two million inhabitants (CIA, 2026), and it

stands in the center of the way Slovenians conceive of collective identity. According to scholars,

the history of the development of the Slovene language and its role is closely linked to the

formation of the national consciousness of Slovenia. The closer the language resembles a

representation of a particular cultural world, the louder the sense of shared identity in the

subjects speaking it (Kropej Telban & Hrobat Virloget, 2014). Language has various functions in

old and contemporary society. Language can be viewed as a cultural survival in centuries of

greater political authority (Habsburg Empire), and it is still a sign of exclusivity in a place of

combined Slavic languages. The focus on linguistic identity reached a new level of symbolic

significance in the 1990s, as Slovenia was becoming an independent state in Yugoslavia, and

the concern was becoming more focused on the local and regional peculiarities under the

influence of globalization (Kropej Telban & Hrobat Virloget, 2014). This focus on the Slovene

language demonstrates how identity can be not only descriptive but also political. Language is

not only cohesive at the domestic level, but also those who are foreign whose speech patterns

might resemble each other, but whose politics and traditions remain clearly different. On the

other hand, a pillar of Slovenia's national identity resides in its historical account of

independence and a successful post-Yugoslav transition. The peaceful secession of Slovenia

out of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991 is contrasted with the violent

conflicts in the other Yugoslav republics and the difference has become one of the most notable

characteristics of Slovenian self-identity. The story of Slovenia gaining independence is usually

told as a restoration to Europe not as a break with tradition, a means of reestablishing

connection with Western political and economic conventions after decades of socialist

federalism. This image of oneself is being strengthened by the early accession of Slovenia to

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Western institutions such as the European Union, NATO, Eurozone. These associations put

Slovenia squarely in the European camp, and such a status has symbolic significance in identity

formation. The comparison made between Slovenia and the Balkans, which in a bigger context

is viewed as a less stable or developed nation, highlights the role of historical narrative in

creating a sense of national self-definition. The consequence is a narrative tension Slovenia

believes in its Slavic origins and Yugoslav past but prefers a European identity which not only

justifies the state to the world but also finds the country a place in a wider Western culture. In-

house Borders: Minorities, Citizenship, and Ethnicity. Another way in which national identity is

established is through internal Othering in which one or some groups in a society are set

against the perceived core. In Slovenia, the citizenship policies of 1991 and the recognition of

minorities highlight the importance of belonging as something both inclusive and exclusive.

Following independence, the citizenship laws in Slovenia supported ethnic continuum, whereby

one had to be of descent or a long-term resident to be naturalized. Meanwhile, Slovenia clearly

acknowledged only several ethnic minorities, the Italians and Hungarians, as national minorities

with formal group rights. Other ethnicities that originated within the territory of the former

Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbs, Croats, or Bosnians) have no de jure status, this can be defined as an

ethicized citizenship where certain communities are legalized and symbolically placed into the

foreground whereas the rest are relegated to the periphery of their respective culture (Kralj,

2023). Ultimately strengthening a national narrative rooted in ethnic Slovene descent. Research

indicates that a majority of Slovenians (and young) already feel that they possess a robust

European identity, one that does not at all conflict with their national identity and even, to an

extent, informs the educational and social values (Novak & Lajh, 2025). European identity to the

Slovenians does not just entail institutional belonging, but it is an orientation which is cultural in

its approach to making Slovenia a modern, democratic, and economically integrated European

nation. Slovenian national identity is created because of an ongoing Othering, or the relational

labor of determining what it is not. On the outside, Slovenia contrasts with the Balkans the part

of Europe that in a larger European context, is traditionally linked to chaos and mayhem. The

academic scholarship has also validated the claim that the post-independent identity of Slovenia

was constructed partly in opposition to a de facto Balkan identity, which was viewed negatively,

and by wishing to identify as a European identity, which was superior (Perković & Učakar,

2017). The fact that some minority groups are not institutionally recognized within the

organization makes them have a sense of being in a hierarchy. Italians and Hungarians enjoy

constitutional protection, but the former Yugoslav minority do not. They are even regarded as

being culturally different and politically less central to the national narrative when they have

been living in Slovenia generations. This tendency is not only a legal differentiation but also the

ordinary symbolism of who is the perceived nation of Slovenia (Kralj, 2023). The Slovenian

national identity is a mythic narrative of language, history, citizenship, and the external

orientation. These aspects of identity are not merely statements of what Slovenians are, but the

expressions of identity building and decisions that a nation makes about itself as compared to

others.

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References

Smith, A. D. (1991). National identity. University of Nevada Press.

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Triandafyllidou, A. (2001). Immigrants and national identity in Europe. Routledge.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274807872_Immigrants_and_National_Identity_in_Eur

ope

Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of

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Communities-Reflections-on-the-Origin-and-Spread-of-Nationalism-by-Benedict-Anderson-z-

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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(4), 875–892.

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Kropej Telban, M., & Hrobat Virloget, K. (2014). Cultural heritage and identity in Slovenia: The

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Novak, M., & Lajh, D. (2025). How European do young Slovenians feel? Politics and

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Perković, T., & Učakar, T. (2024). Creating transnational social spaces: The descendants of

Bosnian immigrants in Slovenia.

(download full pdf)

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