Page 131 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

A Dynasty of Mayors and a Member of Parliament

(‘Deželne zadeve’ 1867, 41). However, despite the glorifying words of the
newspaper, Černe’s re-election turned out to be the zenith of his political
career, eventually leading to his inglorious fall. Although Černe repeatedly
voted against government decisions, he finally joined the circle of govern-
ment supporters, the so-called Constitutionalists, and in the schism be-
tween the Young Slovenians and the Old Slovenians, approached the camp
of the latter, i.e. the followers of the ‘small steps policy.’ He thus operated
mainly in the support of Austrian, or rather governmental, patriotism. In
the end, Černe became indifferent to political claims of Slovenian national
activists and never adopted the idea of a united Slovenia (merging crown-
lands inhabited by the Slovenian population into a common polity), the
national-political ideal of the committed, mostly liberal ‘champions’ of the
time, nor did he actively participate in the camps (tabori – political events
in the open air advocating the idea of a united Slovenia) in the Littoral (Pri-
morje) region (Melik 2002, 68). Consequently, political opponents labelled
Černea‘GermanophileWop’(nemškutarski Lahon in Slovene – derogatory
for a ‘Germanophile’ Italian) (‘Črni listi’ 1872, 2).
The final showdown with Černe took place in 1872, when he decided to
support the law on direct elections to the National Assembly in Vienna.
His opponents considered Černe’s move to be in favour of centralism and
therefore against the national interests. As a consequence, the Karst vot-
ers gathered in a tavern in Sežana and passed a vote of no confidence in
him, saying that Černe had abandoned his old political friends and crossed
‘straight into the camp of the political enemies.’ Presumably, he was elect-
ed to the National Assembly thanks to the Italian regional deputies. Černe
ineptly responded in a short brochure in which he mocked the writers, say-
ing that they were people, politicians and journalists, who had ‘more emp-
ty stomachs than they had bread in their pockets.’ Convinced that the no-
confidence vote was the result of a handful of ‘Slovenian mischief-makers’
and that he would therefore be able to easily renew his support, Černe con-
vened a meeting of the electorate in the same tavern where the voters had
initially opposed him (Černe 2013).
Turning to Černe’s community of origin will make it easier to under-
stand the anger of the Karst people at the electoral assembly in Sežana in
April 1872. If thevoteofnoconfidence againstadeputy whopresumably
neglected national interests was not so unusual in the southern lands of
themonarchy,whatisnoteworthyistheunusuallyfieryreactionofKrašev-
ci to Černe’s explanation of his political decisions. This reaction could best
be defined as a form of public lynching. Černe’s expectations did not match

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