Independence monument, new attempt to unite the nation

Slovenia is one of the few ex-communist or ex-socialist countries that has not opted for tearing down monuments associated with the former regime after it adopted democracy in the 1990s. However, now Slovenia's first president and last head of the country's Communist party has suggested just that.

Speaking at a WWII commemoration in Vrhnika on 5 May, Milan Kučan proposed erecting a memorial to Slovenian independence in Ljubljana's Republic Square, a symbolic place in front of the parliament building that has witnessed many seminal moments leading up to independence.

As...