His experience in Croatia, dominated by communism, did not manage to pervert or shatter his own view of socialism; rather he felt that the sort of socialism he believed in had nothing whatsoever to do with communism, an ideology that he viewed as nothing more than centralist totalitarianism, of which its followers, he said, "are incapable of thinking freely. They do not know what freedom is!" In 1989, Gotovac joined the newly formed Croatian Social Liberal Party. Due to his passionate eloquence he became one of its most prominent members. As such, he worked very hard to find proper balance between Croatian nationalism and liberalism. In 1991 in the Sabor during a protest rally held in front of Yugoslav People's Army headquarters. He made passionate and defiant speech responding to the generals who at the time were making many threats against Croatia.