„Zdravljica“ (A Toast), as the Slovenian national anthem is titled, is indispensably connected with the Slovenian nation, said President of the National Assembly Milan Brglez at Friday’s parliamentary session. “During the Second World War it inspired the national liberation movement, and while Slovenia was gaining independence in the late 1980s, it spontaneously became part of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia as a national anthem, which basically only formally confirmed the function that the song had performed since the 2nd World War on,” stressed Brglez.

The text of „Zdravljica“ undoubtedly carries several important messages. The main message is a timeless and always relevant appeal to the love for the nation as well as for freedom, to friendship, tolerance, peace and coexistence of nations, ie. an appeal to respecting the fundamental values that have not yet become a reality in many places around the world, emphasized the President of the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Miro Cerar shared a few thoughts on „Zdravljica“ at the beginning of the session: „I think we have an excellent anthem. We must be proud of it, and I hope it will be heard many times in the future, both at home and abroad.”

The tune of the anthem was written by Stanko Premrl. Its first public performance took place in 1917, when the May Declaration was read in the Vienna parliament.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia passed a law related to the Slovenian anthem on 29 March 1990, declaring the 7th stanza of “Zdravljica” written by France Prešeren, Slovenia’s greatest poet, as the national anthem. The poem had already been chosen as the Slovenian anthem on 27 September 1989 when the assembly of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, as the country was called at the time, passed several dozen amendments to the constitution.

G. K., MMC; translated by K. Z.