Fairy-tale Dimensions of Liberalism

Abstract

The article deals with the mutation of the social link in Slovenian liberalism and populism. It concentrates on the success-story of the Slovene national football team which was soon christened a “Slovenian football fairy tale”. In the period when Slovenia was joining the EU and NATO this “fairy-tale” expressed optimism (as the team manager Katanec on one occasion uttered “There is a God” – on our side, of course) and selfconfidence. In other words, the members of the Slovene national team became such a strong identification point not because of the results they achieved (qualifying for the World Cup), but because they showed us how one can elbow one’s way onto the global market and among the strongest in a traditional Slovene way – with diligence, assiduity, dedication, in short, with hard labour, combined with combativeness and boldness.