People of Yugoslavia! Once again I stand for election to the Skupština for the Yugoslav Democratic Party to represent the interests of the people on a national level. Between this election and the last one a great injustice facing our nation has been undone now that the people of Slovenia are united with their motherland once again, and are again able to determine their own faith. It is a step in the right direction, but our brethern in Dalmatia still suffer under the fascist jackboot of a nation that look to the past for greatness. Because a hundred and sixty-two years ago Venice ruled over our lands, Rome considers it theirs opresses the Yugoslavs who live there. And I am certain this land will be returned to us, maybe not now, or not in a decade, or not in five decades, or in our lifetime. In 1912, I was present at the liberation of Kosovo, the heart of Serbia, from the Turkish empire that had occupied it for 523 years. But unlike then, Serbia was a small country, its only friend was Russia, on the other end of Austria, one of the hostile empires it was surrounded by. But now Serbia is united with its brethren as Yugoslavia. And we have France as our friend we can reach. Dalmatia's return will not take 500 years, it shall be done sooner. Much sooner. And I say that until we have returned our rightful lands, there shall be no contact with the delusional regime in Rome, nor with their Austrian puppet!
The issue of Slovenia also brings up the results of the Austrian occupation. Slovenia has shown us that in order to colonise a nation, one does not have to cross five thousand kilometers or more of open ocean. For all intents and purposes, Slovenia was colonised, where Austrians settled and expanded their economy, and exploited the labour of enslaved Slovenes to build a pointless canal, which even the fascists themselves projected not to be completed before 1980. That they would be willing to use our brothers and sisters as slaves for decades shows the contempt they have for the Yugoslavs. Slovenia was their colony, treated without even the slightest bit care seen in French and British holdings, and the amount of Austrian businesses and capital that remain in Slovenia, its population exodus and economic decline are painful reminders of this that should be undone. The Yugoslav Democratic Party supports the nationalisation of Austrian-owned businesses in Slovenia to eventually transfer them to Slovenes. Furthermore, the YDP supports extra funding and investments in Slovenia to make its economy grow, like it does in the rest of our country.
-Đorđe Ratkovič
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