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Jože Pučnik
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 Jože Pučnik in the late 1990s |
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A Slovenian politician.
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| Preceded by | France Tomšič |
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| Succeeded by | Janez Janša |
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| Born | 9 March 1932 Črešnjevec, Slovenska Bistrica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia |
| Died | 11 January 2003 (aged 70) Germany |
| Political party | Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, Social Democratic Party of Slovenia |
Jože Pučnik (9 March, 1932 – 11 January, 2003) was a prominent Slovenian public intellectual, sociologist and politician. During the Communist regime of Josip Broz Tito, Pučnik was one of the most outspoken Slovenian critics of dictatorship and lack of civil liberties in former Yugoslavia. He was imprisoned for a total of 7 years, and then forced into exile. After returning to Slovenia in the late 1980s, he became the leader of the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, the platform of democratic parties that defeated the Communists in the first free elections in 1990 and introduced a democratic system and full market economy to Slovenia. He is also considered one of the fathers of Slovenian independence from Yugoslavia.
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Early life and formation
Pučnik was born in the small village of Črešnjevec (now part of the Lower Styrian municipality of Slovenska Bistrica), in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia). He came from a Roman Catholic peasant family that had supported the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People during World War II. His brother, Ivan Pučnik, was a reformist Communist politician in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later also became a dissident.[1]
When already a teenager, Jože Pučnik clashed with the Communist establishment. Because of some critical thoughts published in the high school paper Iskanja ("Quests") he was prohibited from taking his final exam.[2] Since he couldn't enroll in the University, he was drafted in the Yugoslav People's Army. After completing his military service, he took the final exam, passed it and enrolled at the University of Ljubljana, where he studied philosophy and comparative literature, graduating in 1958.
While living in Ljubljana, he became involved with a group of young intellectuals, known as the Critical generation, which tried to open a space for public debate and challenged the rigid cultural policies of the Titoist regime in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Among Pučnik's closest collaborators from that period were the literary historian Taras Kermauner, sociologist Veljko Rus, and poet Veno Taufer. Pučnik believed that the system could be changed from inside and therefore joined the Communist Party of Slovenia. At the same time, he published several articles in the Revija 57magazine, in which he openly criticised the economic policies of the Communist regime.
The dissident years
In 1958, Pučnik was arrested accused of "subversion of the Socialist system" and sentenced to 9 years in jail. At the trial, which lasted only a couple of hours, he was accused of having instigated workers to strike. Some have suggested that Pučnik's imprisonment was a deliberate attempt by the regime to silence dissident intellectuals.[3] He was released in 1963 and immediately continued writing for the alternative journal Perspektive. At this point he was already publicly stating his disapproval of the regime.[2] In 1964, his article Problemi našega kmetijstva ("The Problems of Our Agriculture") was published in the journal Perspektive. In it, Pučnik criticized the agricultural policy of the regime, arguing that it was inefficient using publicly available official data. He was arrested again, sentenced to another two years in prison and expelled from the Communist Party.
During his time in prison, Pučnik became an idol for his generation.[2][4] The playwright Dominik Smole dedicated him the play Antigone and Primož Kozak portrayed him in the leading role of his play Afera ("The Affaire"). Both plays were metaphors for the totalitarian repression in Communist Yugoslavia.[4]
Emigration and academic career
Pučnik was released from jail in 1966. After several unsuccessful attempts to find a job, he decided to emigrate to Germany. He settled in Hamburg, making a living from manual jobs. When he decided to enroll as a postgraduate student at the University of Hamburg, the University of Ljubljana refused to provide him with a copy of his degree.[5][2] He thus enrolled again to undergraduate study of philosophy and sociology, obtaining his PhD in 1971. He worked at the universities of Hamburg and Lüneburg, where he taught sociology. During his life in Germany, Pučnik became a supporter of the German Social Democratic Party, maintaining close relations with several of its leaders. In the late 1980s, he became an open admirer of the Social Democratic leader of Lower Saxony Gerhard Schröder, later chancellor of Germany, whom he took as his main role model for his subsequent political activity.[6]
In the academic sphere, he became influenced by the theories of Jürgen Habermas, Niklas Luhmann and his system theory, as well as by several phenomenological sociologists such as Alfred Schutz and the Slovene-born Thomas Luckmann.[7]
During his years of exile, he kept up a correspondence with several important critical intellectuals in Slovenia, especially Ivo Urbančič.
Return to Slovenia
In the 1980s, Pučnik could again publish articles in Slovenia, this time in the alternative journal Nova revija. He returned to Slovenia in 1989 at the invitation of the newly formed opposition Social Democratic Union of Slovenia. He was elected president of the party in 1989 and the following year he was chosen as the leader of the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, a common platform of all democratic opposition parties in Slovenia. The coalition won the first democratic elections in 1990. Pučnik ran for President of Slovenia but lost to Milan Kučan, the last secretary general of the Communist Party of Slovenia. He was nevertheless elected to the Slovenian Parliament and remained the official leader of the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia. Between 1990 and 1992, he was among those who led Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia. In 1992, after the fall of Lojze Peterle's coalition government, Pučnik decided to lead his party into a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and briefly served as vice-president in the first government of Janez Drnovšek.
In the elections of 1992, the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia suffered a complete defeat, gaining a mere 3.4% of the vote, just enough to enter Parliament. Pučnik resigned as president of the party in favour of Janez Janša. Between 1992 and 1996, Pučnik served as a member of the National Assembly of Slovenia. During this time, he led a parliamentary commission to clarify political responsibility for the summary executions perpetrated by the Communist regime in Slovenia after World War II .
After 1996, he retired from active politics, but remained honorary president of the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia and continued to voice his opinion on matters of public interest. He remained utterly critical of the policies of Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek and President Milan Kučan.
He died in Germany in 2003 and was buried in his home village of Črešnjevec. His funeral was attended by a huge crowd. The eulogy was delivered by philosopher and his lifelong friend Ivo Urbančič.
Legacy
Pučnik is considered by many to be one of the fathers of independent Slovenia. In 2006, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Distinct Merits of Slovenia and in 2007 the Government of Slovenia honoured him by naming the main international airport in Slovenia, Brnik Airport after him. The Slovenian liberal conservative think tank Jože Pučnik Institute is also named after him.
Major works
- Kultura, družba in tehnologija ("Culture, Society and Technology", 1988).
- K političnemu sistemu Republike Slovenije ("Towards a Political System of the Republic of Slovenia", 1990).
- Iz arhivov slovenske politične policije ("From the Archives of the Slovenian Political Police", 1996).
- Izbrano delo ("Selected Works", edited by Ivan Urbančič, Janez Janša et al., 2003).
See also
- France Bučar
- Contributions to the Slovenian National Program
- Breakup of Yugoslavia
- Ten Day War
- Politics of Slovenia
References
- ^ http://www.dnevnik.si/novice/slovenija/1042227770
- ^ a b c d Mladina.si
- ^ Interview with Taras Kermauner on the Sloevnian National TV
- ^ a b Odprti kop - Intervju: Dr. Taras Kermauner
- ^ Inštitut Jožeta Pučnika => joze pucnik
- ^ Taras Kermauner, Skupinski portret z Dušanom Pirjevcem. Ljubljana: Znanstveno in raziskovalno središče, 2002. P. 139
- ^ http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=F681B62B-37ED-4910-8E7B-93F5B140CCE7
Sources
- Niko Grafenauer, "Beseda o Jožetu Pučniku" in Ampak, yr. 4, n.1 (January 2003), 10.
- Drago Jančar, "Stvar Jožeta Pučnika" in Konec tisočletja, račun stoletja (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1999).
- Dean Komel, "Jože Pučnik: prestopanje družbe kot zastopanje kulture" in Nova revija, yr. 26, n. 301/303 (May-June 2007), 2-8.
- Božo Repe, "Človek, ki je pospeševal in radikaliziral dogodke: Jože Pučnik" in Delo, yr, 45, n. 14 (January 15, 2003), 6.
- Rudi Šeligo, "Jože Pučnik: 1932-2003" in Ampak, yr. 4, n.1 (January 2003), 4-5.
- Ivan Urbančič, "Jože Pučnik 1932-2003" in Delo, yr. 45, n. 17 (January 22, 2003), 2.
Further reading
- Milan Zver (ed.), Pučnikova znanstvena in politična misel ("The Scientific and Political Thaught of Jože Pučnik", editor; Ljubljana, 2004).
External links
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by France Tomšič |
President of the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia 1990 – 1993 |
Succeeded by Janez Janša |
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