What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 25 March
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Prime Minister Janez Janša expressed regret about political clashes over things he said were unimportant in war as he commented on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's criticism of Hungary's attitude towards Ukraine. "It's largely about political rhetoric, Hungary has not blocked any sanctions or other serious measures so far," he said.
KOPER/LENDAVA - Two candidates will bid for the seat designated for the Italian minority in the National Assembly and three to serve as the Hungarian minority MP in the 24 April election, including both incumbents. The Italian minority MP Felice Žiža will face off Maurizio Tremul, the long-serving head of the minority's umbrella organisation. Hungarian minority MP Ferenc Horvath will compete against Otto Močnek of the Hungarian consulate in Lendava and Mihael Kasaš, the head of the Lendava city administration.
LJUBLJANA - The non-parliamentary parties Good State and Our Future announced they would contest the 24 April general election together. They filed a joint ticket along with two other political groups. The list of 78 candidates includes Violeta Tomić, currently an MP for the Left, and rapper Zlatko, an anti-masker.
LJUBLJANA/MARIBOR/KOPER - Supporters of the Youth for Climate Justice movement gathered in Ljubljana, Maribor and Koper to let decision makers know before the April election that the planet must have priority over capital. They addressed a list of demands for a better future to mayors and to parties contesting the upcoming election.
PLANICA, 25 March (STA) - Slovenian ski jumpers swept the podium in the first individual event of the World Cup season finale, as Žiga Jelar won the event ahead of Peter Prevc and Anže Lanišek. Timi Zajc was fourth to round off the complete domination of the home team in front of the capacity crowd at Planica.
SATURDAY, 26 March
LJUBLJANA - National Assembly Speaker Igor Zorčič gave a generally positive assessment of the parliament's work upon the end of the current four-year term, adding that any speaker should retain a neutral position. In an interview with the STA, he assessed that he had performed his role in line with professional standards.
PLANICA - Slovenia's Žiga Jelar, Peter Prevc, Timi Zajc and Anže Lanišek won the last Ski Jumping World Cup team event of the season in Planica before some 20,000 spectators. With 1,601.1 points, the team outperformed Norway by 24.2 points and third-placed Austria by 56.9.
SUNDAY, 27 March
LJUBLJANA/KYIV, Ukraine - Slovenia's interim chargé d'affaires Boštjan Lesjak arrived in Kyiv after Slovenia decided to reopen its embassy there. Slovenia's Ambassador to Ukraine Tomaž Mencin continues with his work from Rzeszow, a town on the Polish-Ukrainian border where most other ambassadors are located.
LJUBLJANA - Žito, a bread and pasta maker owned by Croatian food company Podravka, announced it planned to shut down two production locations in Slovenia, in Ljubljana and Novo Mesto, in a move it says will improve productivity and long-term profitability.
PLANICA - Marius Lindvik of Norway won the last Ski Jumping World Cup event of the season, while Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan finished 8th to secure his overall win in the World Cup. Lindvik was followed by Yukiya Sato of Japan and Slovenia's Peter Prevc.
MONDAY, 28 March
ZAGREB - PM Janez Janša and his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenković talked about cooperation in gas supply and the Krško nuclear power plant as they met in the Croatian capital. While Slovenia is interested in getting natural gas through the Krk LNG terminal, Croatia expressed an interest in investing in the expansion of Krško.
BRDO PRI KRANJU - The EU's enlargement to its eastern neighbourhood dominated the opening session of the conference of EU parliamentary speakers with President Borut Pahor arguing the EU should reach a consensus on how to speed up accession talks while preserving safeguards in terms of fulfilment of criteria and rules.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Some 7,000 refugees from Ukraine have so far applied for temporary protection in Slovenia, Franc Kangler, a state secretary at the Interior Ministry, told reporters during a session of EU Home Affairs Council. Roughly 50,000 people from Ukraine have crossed Slovenia, most of them heading on to Italy, France and Spain.
TRIESTE, Italy - A contract was signed in Trieste to formally transfer the ownership of National Hall, a building of great symbolic importance to the Slovenian minority in Italy, from the University of Trieste on to the minority. The ceremony was attended by Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
LJUBLJANA - The public broadcaster invited protest by deciding to treat the party of Aleksandra Pivec, the former agriculture minister, as a parliamentary party in election debates arguing it is a legal successor to the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), the party Pivec used to head. DeSUS protested against Our Land being declared their legal successor, while Robert Golob's Freedom Movement, which applied for the same status but was rejected, said it would boycott TV Slovenija debates.
LJUBLJANA - Blaž Košorok was relieved of his duties as a state secretary at the Infrastructure Ministry with media reports tipping him as a serious contender to become CEO of GEN Energija, one of two major energy groups in the country. Košorok served as CEO of HSE, the state-owned holding running a series of power plants.
LJUBLJANA - Telekom Slovenije, the majority state-owned telecoms incumbent, has finalised an agreement to buy software developer Actual I.T. for EUR 20.6 million. The transaction is expected to be completed within six months.
TUESDAY, 29 March
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Health Minister Janez Poklukar said after a meeting of EU health ministers that Slovenia could accept more than 50 Ukrainian patients. For now, Slovenia has offered to admit four sick people from Ukraine. Poklukar also endorsed the proposal from Poland to establish a special mechanism for financing the treatment of Ukrainian patients.
BRDO PRI KRANJU - The second day of the conference of EU parliamentary speakers focussed on the EU as a guarantor of stability, safety and prosperity in the region and beyond. The speakers stressed the importance of EU enlargement. Slovenian Speaker Igor Zorčič said the Russian aggression of Ukraine represented everything the EU had been fighting against.
LJUBLJANA - Amnesty International said in its 2021 report on human rights that Slovenia's refugee legislation was too restrictive as access to asylum continues to be denied to potential asylum seekers irregularly entering the country. It also noted that media freedom had deteriorated, including through verbal attacks on journalists and the defunding of the STA, and that freedom of peaceful assembly had been restricted during the pandemic.
LJUBLJANA - Huawei presented a legal opinion that it says shows the new bill on electronic communications, which parliament will vote on Thursday, has shortcomings which could lead to lawsuits at the EU court and disputes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
IZOLA - It was revealed that Izola Mayor Danilo Markočič has been charged with abuse of office in a case that led to the resignation of Aleksandra Pivec as agriculture minister in the autumn of 2020. The charges concern a hotel bill that the municipality paid for Pivec and her sons during what was supposed to be an official function.
LJUBLJANA - The Bank Assets Management Company (BAMC) published a takeover bid for Mladinska Knjiga, Slovenia's largest publisher, offering EUR 8.90 per share or roughly EUR 5.35 million for the 48.77% stake it does not hold already.
WEDNESDAY, 30 March
KRŠKO - Blaž Košorok, until a few days ago a state secretary at the Infrastructure Ministry, was appointed chairman of GEN Energija, a state-owned power company that manages Slovenia's half of the Krško nuclear power station. He succeeds Martin Novšak, who was dismissed just over a month ago.
LJUBLJANA - The news portals 24ur and Necenzurirano reported that the state prosecution was looking into the licence fee that Telekom Slovenije, the state-owned telecoms operator, is paying to carry Nova24TV on suspicion that the fee was disproportionately high and constituted unlawful financing of the broadcaster.
LJUBLJANA - The 8 March Institute, one of the NGOs that had initiated a referendum on changes to the waters act, started collecting signatures in support of a bill repealing government legislation they deem harmful. The centre-left opposition voiced support for the move, the coalition decried it as meddling in the election campaign.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's charge d'affaires at the embassy in Kyiv Boštjan Lesjak told TV Slovenija that he had to take down the Slovenian flag in front of the embassy because its similarity with the Russian flag could incite "undesired incidents". But the Slovenian Foreign Ministry told the STA the next day that after the Ukrainian security forces beefed up security, Lesjak again raised the Slovenian flag and now it was to stay there.
LJUBLJANA - In the first two months of the year the Slovenian police handled 1,128 instances of illegal crossing of the border, almost double the figure in the same period last year. More than a third of the cases involved citizens of Afghanistan. police data showed.
THURSDAY, 31 March
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's general government deficit amounted to EUR 2.705 billion or 5.2% of GDP last year, or EUR 961 million less than in 2020. Gross general government debt reached 74.7% of GDP, decreasing by 5.1 percentage points in relative terms year-on-year while nominally increasing by EUR 1.435 billion, the Statistics Office said.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia recorded an annual inflation rate of 5.4% in March, a significant drop from 6.9% in February, as a 30% decline in electricity prices shaved a full percentage point off the headline rate, the Statistics Office reported.
LJUBLJANA - Matjaž Nemec, an MP for the opposition SocDems, said PM Janez Janša was jeopardising the 2009 border arbitration agreement between Slovenia and Croatia and abusing office as he engages in talks with Croatia on what was already agreed on. Nemec spoke to the press a day after a Croatia newspaper reported that Croatia and Slovenia had drawn up a pilot plan to solve the issue of fishing in the Bay of Piran.
ABU DHABI, UAE - Potential for stronger economic cooperation and current international issues topped the agenda as National Assembly Speaker Igor Zorčič met with Saqr Ghobash, speaker of the the Federal National Council, at the outset of a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates. The officials said about the war in Ukraine that "confrontation does not lead anywhere, peace is the only answer to conflicts".
LJUBLJANA - The government capped the wholesale price of regular petrol and diesel two and a half weeks after regulating retail prices. The wholesale price has been set two cents below the retail price, a price the government said provided a margin that would make it possible for small retailers to secure fuel supplies.
LJUBLJANA - The new management of the Radioactive Waste Management Agency reversed the decision by the previous management not to pick any of the three bids for the construction of a radwaste repository. The bids, two of which were originally disqualified and one deemed too high, will now be re-examined.
VINICA - President Borut Pahor and UK Ambassador to Slovenia Tiffany Sadler marked Slovenia-UK Friendship Day in Gornji Suhor, a village in south-eastern Slovenia where a British bomber crashed in March 1945 while locals and Slovenian Partisans helped save some of the crew.
LJUBLJANA - The government formally relieved of their duties the Slovenian ambassadors accredited to Belgium and Croatia, Rado Genorio and Vojislav Šuc, respectively, as their terms expire at the end of May. Petra Kežman was appointed Slovenia's new national coordinator for relations with the Union for the Mediterranean.
LJUBLJANA - National motorway company DARS generated almost EUR 470 million in sales revenue in 2021, up from over EUR 398 million in 2020. The largest share of revenue - EUR 456 million - came from motorway tolls. Net profit almost doubled to EUR 112.7 million.
LINZ, Austria - Slovenian artist Špela Petrič was named one of two recipients of the ArtScience Residencies which the Art Collection Deutsche Telekom awards in collaboration with Ars Electronica to artists working at the intersection of art and science.
