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POLITICAL

JPRS-EER-91-053 25 ApriI 1991

function of monitoring the authorities and seeking better Solutions. Those in the opposition who flaunt different statements and ideas are forgetting that Slovenes are not that naive. Perhaps they can score some point with such behavior in the short term, but in the long term that is certainly not productive.

[Koprivc] Do you think that things are straightforward in Demos? Could not one also speak of unnecessary aggressiveness in the casc of Demos?

[Pucnik] Certainly there have been mistakes, but it is inconceivable that those mistakes are being declared to be evidencc of an aspiration for totalitarian influence and control. How is it possible to equate Demos with obscurantism and lament the former “enlightenment”!? Where did such critics live until now? We could ponder over their intellectual discernment, especially sińce there are many incomparably morę important problems on which they could vent their critical spleen.

[Koprivc] How do you view the mania over Austria?

[Pucnik] That has been partly encouraged by various critics. Bucar's words have also been misinterpreted; he was thinking about cultural ties and relations with Central Europę. The Austria option does not come into consideration for Slovenia. That is quite elear, and it is not cven worth discussing. Of course, financial and other ties are another matter, but not political union with Austria and also with other States. No one in Demos is seriously discussing political union with Austria, not even as an option.

[Koprivc] Are you thinking about being a candidate for president of the rcpublic?

[Pucnik] I do not know. If it seemed politically advis-able, yes. 1 was a candidate in the last elections primarily so that Demos would be the focus of public and media attention. 1 wanted to win, of course. I did everything that I could and that I knew how to do.

[Koprivc] How do you view the work of Milan Kucan, your opponent in the last presidential elections?

[Pucnik] Kucan is intelligent. He is a realist, a pragma-tist. Except for one big mistake, that time with the weapons, when in spite of our elear waming he waited for 48 hours before he prohibited tuming over the territorial defense weapons to the Yugoslav People’s Army, he has not madę a single mistake, in my opinion. He makes good moves, he is efTective, cooperative, and he has actually adopted Demos’s policy on Slovene independence; although before the elections he advo-cated something completely different, that should be welcomed. I do not have any critical comments about his work, except possibly regarding his attitude toward indi-vidual parties, but I would probably also do the same in his place.

[Koprivc] You are said to be a person who wants to get out of Yugoslavia at all costs. The president of the SDP [Party of Democratic Reform], Dr. Ciril Ribicic, is also criticizing you for something like that, saying that in a situation in which possibilities are appearing for a sen-sible agreement on settling the Yugoslav question, you are forcibly pushing Slovenia out of Yugoslavia.

[Pucnik] Some people forget that there was a plebiscite and that that was the decision. If they wanted to change that decision, they should hołd a new plebiscite. The SDP is trying again to keep all the options open, and they think they could afford to begin representing a Yugoslav orientation again. In the plebiscite they were totally on our side, and they did not have a different position, but now they would like something different again. Obvi-ously they like to oppose things, but in addition to that they particularly like to attack me.

[Koprivc] When you talk about different options, which option is unacceptable to you?

[Pucnik] A joint State and joint State bodies are not acceptable to me. We cannot have any confidence in bodies that would be derived from the present federal bodies. If joint bodies ever appear, then they have to appear on a different basis and through a different procedurę—from bottom to top. It is not possible to settle the question of the federation with all the unclear and indefinite elements of the past, with all the Yugoslav mythology that has a destructive effect but not a unifying one.

[Koprivc] Do you see a confederation as a guarantee of new relations?

[Pucnik] Yes, a confederation, as we envision it, with consultative bodies, but not a parliament that would make decisions and a govemmcnt that would carry them out. The consultative bodies would be representatives of individual governments, who would agree on joint projects, on financing joint projects, on the conditions for participation, nonparticipation, withdrawal, and so forth. I am in favor of a community bascd on economic interest, from which some new State entity could possibly appear in the futurę, in 20 or 30 years, if there is a need for it at that time.

Poił on Status of Serb Communes in Croatia

AU1404174591

[Editorial Report] Zagreb VJESNIK in Scrbo-Croatian on 3 April on page 3 of its VJESNIK U SRIJEDU supplement carries a 500-word report by Bruno Slogar on the results of a public opinion poll on the seccssion of Serbian communes from Croatia, entitled “13.24 Per-cent of Serbs Favor Secession.”

According to the report, “the poll was carried out between 26 and 30 March, that is, before Sunday’s bloody events. It was conducted by telephone and involvcd 453 respondents from Croatia.”

The results of the poll are summarized in several bar and pie charts , converted to tables, as follows: