STA, 10 February 2022 - Slovenia confirmed 12,137 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday as the country continues to be on the downward slope of the Omicron-driven wave. Another 19 fatalities among 19-Covid patients were reported.

Week-on-week decline in Covid cases continues since more than 16,500 cases were logged a week ago. Both the seven-day average of daily cases and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 people thus dropped - the former by some 640 to 9,220 and the latter by nearly 100 to 8,143.

The National Institute of Public Health estimates there are now 171,691 active cases in Slovenia, down by 2,000 on the previous day.

Some 3,250 PCR tests and almost 124,100 rapid antigen tests were performed yesterday.

Figures released by the government show 530 patients are hospitalised with Covid as their main condition as of this morning, including 121 in intensive care. This is down by 18 and four, respectively, from yesterday. In all, 1,038 patients now in hospitals have tested positive for coronavirus.

The latest data on COVID and Slovenia

STA, 9 February 2022 - The ruling Democrats (SDS) and the other coalition parties expressed on Wednesday their readiness for election and a wish for programme-oriented campaigning, with the parties of the current opposition also saying they are ready and that they expect good results, as President Borut Pahor formally called the general election for 24 April today.

In response to Pahor's announcement, representatives of parties currently represented in the National Assembly expressed their readiness for the election process to start.

The ruling Democrats (SDS) welcomed Pahor's announcement, with the leader of the SDS deputy group, Danijel Krivec, expressing the wish for a programme-oriented election campaign, so that "we move away a bit from all that is happening at the moment".

They expect an exchange of views and arguments, thus winning voters over on the basis of concrete commitments and actions, not empty phrases and platitudes, added Krivec.

SDS president and Prime Minister Janez Janša said on Facebook as he responded to Pahor's announcement that it would be the first regular election in Slovenia since 2008.

"The coalition of the SDS, NSi and Concretely successfully chaired the EU Council, ensured stability, recovery and development. Thanks also to the constructive part of the opposition and minority deputies."

Janša said that the coalition had managed this "despite the shots in the back by KUL", in reference of the informal Constitutional Arch Coalition formed by the four centre-left opposition parties.

The coalition New Slovenia (NSi) said that the party was looking forward to the election with confidence, a good legacy from the current mandate and with the conviction that they can win the trust of the electorate again.

Gregor Perič, the leader of the Concretely deputy group, said that the newly merged party was ready for the election as well, and that its new political format will aim to highlight the advantages of cooperation and integration.

Perič also considers it very important that the election results are recognised by all as legal and legitimate and that there is no shadow of doubt cast over them.

Representatives of the KUL alliance of four opposition parties also responded to Pahor's announcement today, stressing that their post-electoral cooperation agreement was ready and clearly outlined.

The Left, Social Democrats (SD), Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) thus reiterated that they would get behind the leader of the party who would win the highest share of the votes among them.

As for possible cooperation with the newly-formed Freedom Movement under Robert Golob, who has a high level of support according to recent polls, Left coordinator Luka Mesec ruled nothing out and pointed out the need for further negotiations.

The leader of LMŠ, Marjan Šarec, also commented on president Pahor's decision to give the mandate to form a government to the person with sufficient support in the new parliament after the election.

That was a good call that will enable Slovenia's politics to avoid the scenario seen in 2018, said Šarec, when "Janez Janša didn't even accept the mandate because he clearly had nobody to form a coalition with".

The main concern for the opposition parties thus remains to achieve the highest possible voter turnout, so that the supporters of the current government do not get the opportunity to form a government again, which was also reiterated by the SAB leader Alenka Bratušek.

As President Pahor also called on the parties to maintain a high level of political culture during the campaign, Mesec echoed these sentiments, saying that he fears that this year's election campaign will be dirty.

The leader of the National Party, Zmago Jelinčič, predicted "an interesting campaign with revelations both from the left and the right," adding that he "expects people not to fall for the wunderkinds and the new faces again".

After today's signing of the presidential decree to call the election, parties and groups of voters can enter their bids for the election starting from 14 February. These need to be submitted by 24 March, when the official election campaign starts.

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA:

STA, 9 February 2022 - Corwin, a Slovak developer present in Slovenia for over four years, and its Czech partner Hartenberg have purchased two large plots in the centre of Ljubljana to build several hundred new flats, new offices and a shopping mall, the company said on Wednesday. Construction is expected to start around 2024.

The first plot of almost 6,300 square metres is located along Masarykva Street and was sold to the two investors by the Slovenian bad bank BAMC.

Under the current spatial plan, housing or office buildings can be constructed on it.

The second plot extends on almost 16,500 square metres behind the Slovenijales office building south of Linhartova Street.

It was bought from Triglav Nepremičnine, insurer Triglav's real estate arm.

As the newspaper Dnevnik recently reported, offices, hotels, hospitality or retail infrastructure can be built on it but not housing.

"Both plots have the potential to strongly enrich the surroundings and significantly impact on the image of the new Ljubljana centre," Robert Mitterpach, financial director and chairman of the board at Corwin, said in the news release.

The investors have thus invited several respectable architecture studios from around the globe to take part.

Gehl Architects, a Danish studio which has also transformed Times Square in New York, was invited to prepare the main project in Linhartova Street, while Austria's AllesWirdGut will design the buildings.

Details about the Masarykova Street project, which will be part of a major renovation around the train station as part of a public-private partnership, are not yet known.

However, Corwin said that Vilharia, an office building designed by Danish Schmidt Hammer Lassen that will start being built at the end of 2022 near Ljubljana's main train station, will serve as a role model. Corwin hopes to bring together local construction experts and a leading architecture studio.

Corwin said that Vilharia was worth tens of millions of euros while it billed it as the greenest building in Slovenia.

The Slovak developer is meanwhile building a housing complex in Ljubljna's Šiška borough; Kvartet is its first major project in Slovenia.

The EUR 45 million investment will feature four 15-storey blocks of flats. Construction work, launched in August 2020, is in full swing.

STA, 9 February 2022 - A total of 46% of Slovenian employers intend to raise wages by 5% in the first half of this year, shows Manpower's survey on salary and employee benefits trends. Employers cite retaining talent in their organisations as the main reason for the increase.

According to Manpower, 25% of the employers expect to raise pay between 6% and 10%, 4% expect a rise of 11-15%, and 1% a rise of more than 21%.

A total of 24% of the employers, on the other hand, do not intend to increase pay.

Although the majority of the employers plan to increase wages, 74% do not see the need to increase other benefits and financial incentives.

In addition, 43% of the country's employers expect to increase wages for all employees in the company in the first half of 2022, whereas 12% will do so for 50-80% of their employees. 21% of the employers will do this for between 20-50% of their staff, and 24% intend to increase wages for up to 20% of workers.

The main aim of employers seems to be to retain talent in their firms. "When asked whether the planned increase in salaries and/or additional benefits is more related to retaining or attracting new employees, 68% of Slovenian employers said it is a retention measure, while 14% said it is a measure to attract new employees," Manpower said.

Planning to announce wage increases to retain staff are most companies in manufacturing, IT, consulting services, banking, insurance and finance, telecommunications, science, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, education, transport and logistics, and construction.

Tourism, car industry and outsourcing are the industries where most companies are expecting pay increases to attract new workers.

The survey notes that the results may have been influenced by employers' behaviour to align the minimum wage with consumer price inflation - but only in industries where the average wage is lower or where a higher share of employees are paid the minimum wage.

The survey for the first six months in 2022 is part of a wider Manpower survey covering four countries in Southern and Eastern Europe, including Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Slovenia, companies from all over the country and from different industries were included. Manpower conducts this survey at the end of each half-year period.

STA, 9 February 2022 - Prime Minister Janez Janša self-tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. He posted a photo of a positive test result on Twitter, saying he had all the symptoms typical of Covid-19, although mild.

Janša said that his family had successfully avoided coronavirus for two years until Tuesday, when his two sons had self-tested positive, while his test had been negative.

Dve leti smo se uspešno izogibali #koronavirus. Včeraj pri samotestiranju pozitivna oba fanta, moj test negativen. Danes žal tudi moj +. Pa vsi klasični simptomi. Zaenkrat milejši. Naj tako ostane. pic.twitter.com/4c2lEn1oHZ

— Janez Janša (@JJansaSDS) February 9, 2022

See the latest data on COVID and Slovenia

STA, 9 February 2022 - President Borut Pahor will sign on Wednesday a presidential decree calling a scheduled general election for Sunday, 24 April, and address the nation on the occasion. Those wanting to stand for election will have until 24 March - the day when the election campaign officially starts - to submit their candidacies.

April 24 is the first possible date for this year's scheduled general election after the last one, a snap election, was held on 3 June 2018.

Pahor decided on the date after consulting in November deputy groups, which largely agreed with it despite some reservations regarding the epidemiological situation.

Before this, there were mounting calls for an early election due to the government's handling of the epidemic and its perceived undermining of the rule of law.

Although the epidemic will play a role, not all rules governing voting of those who would be isolating or quarantining on the election day have been determined yet.

As Pahor issues the writ of elections, 14 February will be set as the date to which deadlines for various electoral procedures will be pegged.

It is after this date that voters and political parties will be able to submit candidacies.

While this is pretty easy for a party, a group of voters needs to collect at least 1,000 voter signatures to support its list of candidates in an electoral unit.

Parties will also have to open at least 45 days before the election a special bank account from which to pay for election campaign costs.

Voters will be electing 90 MPs for a four-year term - 88 MPs are elected by all voters under proportional representation, and the remaining two by members of the Italian and Hungarian minorities.

A new parliament must meet for its maiden session 20 days after the election at the latest, whereupon procedures to form a new government begin.

This will be the ninth general election in the independent Slovenia after the first was held in 1992. The last three elections - in 2011, 2014 and 2018 - were early polls, which means that this year's will be the first scheduled election after 2008. The first multi-party elections were held already in 1990.

STA, 8 February 2022 - Vera Spirits, the Ljubljana-based non-alcoholic spirits maker, has expanded its presence to 15 countries in just over a year in business, and has great ambitions for the future. Filling more than 10,000 bottles last year, it plans to grow four-fold in 2022.

Vera Spirits was founded by Luka Nagode and Urška Dvoraček, who set up a distillery in Ljubljana in 2019 with the aim of producing gin and rum, before moving into the innovative production of exclusively non-alcoholic spirits.

"We decided to take the non-alcoholic route because it presented a very exciting challenge," said Nagode, adding it is not necessary to consume alcohol to have fun, socialise and enjoy tasty beverages.

The market of alcohol-free drinks has seen strong growth in recent years, with beer leading the way. Non-alcoholic spirits, such as those produced by Vera Spirits, are also becoming an increasingly popular global trend.

The company has been present in the market since the end of 2020. Last year they filled and sold more than 10,000 bottles, generating revenue of EUR 15,000. They expect to reach 40,000 bottles this year and up to 250,000 bottles in five years.

"At that point, we should be ready to be taken over by bigger players in the alcohol world, who are already thinking about expanding their portfolio with alcohol-free drinks for adults," Nagode told the STA.

Vera Spirits employs five people and expects to recruit three new employees this year. It is currently present in 15 countries around the world.

They first decided to enter countries where the market is already established and consumers are familiar with such products to a certain extent, Nagode said, listing Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Germany and Denmark as examples.

The response from abroad has been excellent and they are now focusing their efforts more intensively on the Slovenian market, where they generated half their total revenue last year.

In 2022, the company intends to focus on the six markets that were the most profitable last year and try to consolidate and increase their presence there.

"It is not enough to get a local distributor, we have to empower them, support them financially and provide content with our products, so that they can be successful. We are delighted that the US is one of these markets," said Nagode.

Vera Spirits has thus far won top honours in the US Beverage Testing Institute and South Africa's Aurora International Taste, and it has been awarded three medals by The Spirits Business, a British magazine dedicated exclusively to spirits.

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA:

STA, 7 February 2022 - This year's main ceremony dedicated to Culture Day highlighted the constructive response of artists in any crisis. The Prešeren Prizes, top national accolades in culture, were conferred at the event in Cankarjev Dom on Monday evening, the eve of the public holiday, to celebrate various artistic achievements.

Referring to the current challenging times, the chairman of the Prešeren Fund board, Jožef Muhovič, said in his keynote address that "art has always responded to various challenges and crises (...) with the energy of constructiveness".

Artists, he said, have always been creating on the borderline between the known and the unknown, the routine and the visionary. They venture into the unknown and attempt to convey it, they expand horizons, reflect on what they experience and pave the way from the insignificant to the significant.

For Muhovič, art is a rite of passage into another state of being and coexistence between the world and people. This state, however, cannot be programmed or created at will or dictated. "Sometimes it cannot be created at all, but only the favourable conditions for its emergence can be prepared," said the keynote speaker.

The current board members were unanimous at the beginning of their term that Culture Day should be a celebration that honours the achievements and works of Slovenian artists, Muhovič added.

This year's Prešeren Prizes for lifetime achievement were awarded to Kajetan Gantar, an acclaimed philologist and translator of classical literature and philosophy, who is honoured for his "priceless" contribution to Slovenian knowledge of classicism, and celebrated conductor and musicologist Mirko Cuderman for his indelible impression on Slovenian choral music.

The 91-year-old Cuderman did not attend the ceremony in person, but in his acceptance speech that was read out loud he said he is honoured and pleased that the board has awarded him the lifetime achievement prize.

"I gratefully accept it as a recognition of Slovenian choral singing" or all those known and unknown singers and other artists involved in this artistic pursuit, he added, describing choral singing as one of the most significant expressions of Slovenian musical culture.

Gantar, also 91, attended the event in person and received a standing ovation.

Moreover, Prešeren Fund Prizes, celebrating individual accomplishments or achievements in the past three years, were bestowed on poet and writer Anja Štefan, theatre actress Jette Ostan Vejrup, composer Damijan Močnik, soprano Andreja Zakonjšek Krt, painter Dušan Kirbiš and animation filmmaker Špela Čadež.

The ceremony was attended by most of this year's laureates and some of last year's winners, as well as senior officials, including parliamentary Speaker Igor Zorčič, Prime Minister Janez Janša and Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti.

It was directed by Katja Pegan, who has been inspired by Romantic poet France Prešeren's epic poem The Baptism by the Savica when setting the tone of the event. Culture Day, a public holiday marking the anniversary of Prešeren's death, will be celebrated on Tuesday in a limited form.