The discussion last Thursday at two parliamentary boards – education and culture – on the future of the High School for Design and Photography in Križanke certainly qualifies for the list of recent government fiascos that eventually brought to Prime Minister Marjan Šarec resignation Monday morning (at least we hope these are the reasons).

For anyone, and that certainly is the majority of people, who didn’t manage to get through the four-hour-long session, which was televised and is currently available in the national broadcaster’s archive (available here), we list a few jaw-dropping exchanges in which the Ministry of Education’s highest officials (and the Mayor of Ljubljana) turned against the very people they were supposed to take care of, the teachers and students of a public school.

Threats, manipulations, gaslighting, and preaching about “cultured dialogue” was what the public servants of the highest order had to offer when facing concerned professors, students and members of the public, worried that a unique high school in Slovenia, the High School for Design and Photography (SŠOF), may soon be forced to leave the building it calls home.

The controversy begun when the school found out about a letter of intent the Ministry of Education signed with the City of Ljubljana in which it promised to swap its share of Križanke for some land where a new building for the school might someday stand, with August 31, 2022 stated as the conclusion of the deal. The school has resided in Križanke ever since the great architect Jože Plečnik redesigned the former monastery by opening it to the public physically and also by bringing the school inside, making Križanke one of the constitutive elements of the so called University-belt in Ljubljana.

The urgent session of the two boards was called by Levica, with MP Violeta Tomič as its speaker. For the first two hours of the session about 400 SŠOF students, their parents and other protesters gathered in front of Parliament in support of their representatives at the meeting.

The session was called by the left-wing Levica, although the right-wing SDS board member stated that their party was planning to do so as well. In short, Levica proposed to both boards that the letter of intent should be revoked and that the school remain inside the cultural monument.

Violeta Tomič concludes at 00:21:55, and according to the procedural rules the president of the parliamentary board for education, Branislav Rajić, is now supposed to give floor to the Minister of Culture, Zoran Poznič.  

However, getting things off to a bad start at the very beginning, Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković interrupts with a request to speak first, since he doesn’t have time and needs to leave soon. The president allows him to speak “if nobody minds”, which triggers a protest from a board member, MP Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti (Slovenian National Party).

At 00:22:00 a fierce exchange between Janković and Jelinčič ensues, in which Jelinčič insists that Janković waits for his turn and that the state should speak first. The argument, which includes mutual accusations about who of the two had to defend himself in front of the court most recently, comes to the point when Janković at 00:22:45 drops the formal polite form of addressing his interlocutor in Slovenian (from “you” in plural, to “you” in singular). The “debate” then proceeds as follows:

00:24:50 Janković: Naloga mestne občine je, da ščiti lastnino mestne občine v korist meščank  meščanov. Zakaj imamo mi teh 48% [Križank], ne me spraševat, tako to piše, tako je not, jaz nisem delil. Vendar uporabljamo samo 25%. […] Ministrstvo se je obvezalo, da bo do 31. 8. 2022 šolo spraznilo, ker bo imela do takrat šola novo stavbo. Zdaj je nov terminski plan, jaz zdaj to povem, če bo to problem, ne bo nobenega problema podaljšat. Če to pade, tudi ok. Vam pa drugo povem. V kolikor to pade tudi ne vidim nobenega problema.  Šola je  protipotresno varna [sic], govorim o stavbi, Mi bomo s prvim septembrom letos zasedli svojih 48 procentov prostora in to je dejstvo. To kar je naše, bomo pač zasedli in bomo uporabljali v kulturne namene. […] Če bojo začel delat na novih prostorih, da se bo videlo operativno, potem bomo rok podaljšal. Ampak dokler se pa ne začne delat, […], bomo pa naredili to, kar je naše. Mi pač imamo in smo dolžni ščititi našo lastnino v dobro meščank in meščanov. Vi pa lahko sklepate kar hočete, razen, da ukinete mestno občino.

Jankovič then concludes and eventually, without being it his turn to speak, turns his microphone back on, “just a word, since I am leaving” (00:34:08), then he is finally subdued by the president, who ignores his attempts at speaking and proceeds with the session instead, allowing the Mayor to leave.

Following the Minister of Culture, who only gives a short statement, the floor is given to the Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Jernej Pikalo (00:35:27 – 00:48:00).

Pikalo says that there has been a variety of interpretations of the situation which are mostly untrue, so he will address them one by one, “stating facts only, without any emotional interludes”.

He then gives a lecture on contextual reading, and how people tend to misinterpret things when they don’t read the whole document. He then claims that the whole point of the document he holds in his hands, even without the context of the entirety of the remaining text, is hiding in its last paragraph, which he then proceeds to read.

The “document” is a PR message, published on the Ministry’s website, and the last paragraph begins with a statement, that “fears that SŠOF will be left without a roof over its head are therefore ungrounded”, because, in short, the school will soon get a new, better equipped building at a great location, while until then it will remain at its current site.

Despite the warning of a board member, Nina Mavrovič ( at 2:23:10), about the non-binding nature of a PR piece on the Ministry’s website and a binding nature of the letter of intent, which alongside Jankovič’s threat about taking over the premises, perhaps even at the end of this school year, raises a good reason for concern, Pikalo insists on his premise that belief in his promises is positively correlated with the listener’s intelligence, by repeating this same “fact” in his concluding statement as well:

3:40:36 Pikalo: Sedaj, kar se tiče vaših pozivov, jaz seveda mislim, da so dijaki visokih intelektualnih sposobnosti in glede na to, da sem že dvakrat povedal, bom samo še tretjič ponovil. Mislim, da so že prvič dvakrat razumeli. Nihče ne bo nikogar nikamor pošiljal, dokler nova lokacija na Roški ne bo izgrajena.

Pikalo then continues with a predicted timeline of the construction site, stating that it is in truth extremely tight, but if there is a will and, as he can see, the will exists in this Parliament, the goal is totally achievable.

Note that Pikalo was saying this last Thursday, while this Monday began with the resignation of the Finance Minister and then the Prime Minister himself, who cited the current structure of Parliament and the ruling coalition as the reason for stepping down.

After the ministers, guests were invited to enter the discussion with contributions of their own. Let us stop at one of the statements given by SŠOF professor Apolonija Simon, which prompted the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Mitja Blaganje, to reply with a textbook example of gaslighting.

In her speech, (which begins at 01:01:56), Apolonija Simon, describes a meeting with the Mayor, which to her surprise also involved presence of the officials from the Ministry:

1:02:45 Simon: Ko je prišla beseda tudi na to, kaj si želimo, to je bilo vprašanje župana meni, sem povedala, da si želimo nove prostore v bližini križank, kar bi nam omogočalo, da imamo lažje prehode, […], je gospod državni sekretar, gospod Blaganje rekel, da smo za take lokacije predragi. Moram reči, da sem osupnila nad tem odgovorom.

1:09:14 Blaganje: Gospo učiteljico oziroma profesorico na Srednji šoli za oblikovanje in fotografijo bi prosil za opravičilo, ker je javno navedla neresnico. Tega sestanka, ki ga je omenjala, smo se seveda udeležili na vabilo mestne občine Ljubljana in na tem sestanku nikdar nisem izrekel očitanih mi besed. Je pa ta sestanek zaznamoval verbalni spor med G. Brlekom [Festival Ljubljana] in G. Marklom [SŠOF], to je resnica in v eni fazi je ta sestanek potekal v zelo nekonstruktivnem ozračju. Za tovrstne navedbe pa prosim za opravičilo, ker je to zelo velika neresnica, da ne uporabim kakšne druge besede.

Simon is then allowed to take the floor, but only if she wishes to apologise

01:10:10 Simon: Jaz bi želela povedat, da je bila prisotna kar neka množica ljudi: ravnatelj, predsednik sveta, vsi smo slišali izrečene besede, polegeg tega je župam repliciral: Ne, kako predragi, zakaj bi bili predragi? […] Bilo pa je rečeno za lokacijo Rog, za Rogom je parcela, kjer je dalo ministrstvo za šolstvo izvesti preveritveni načrt, kjer bi se nas dalo vpeti noter in v kontekstu te parcele je bilo izrečeno, da je ta lokacija za nas predraga.

Mitja Blaganje then replies:

Hvala lepa za dodatno pojasnilo, vendarle v vaši prvotni izjavi ste trdili, da sem to izjavo izjavil v zvezi z delovanjem SŠOF na obstoječi lokaciji, seveda česa takega nisem izjavil, vljudno vas prosim, da ne trgate izjav iz konteksta, tudi mi smo imeli tukaj prisotne ljudi na tem sestanku in seveda tudi, to ni bilo nikoli izjavljeno.

A note on the background to this exchange: the school staff had previously met with various officials from the Ministry and at a certain point turned down another meeting with the Secretary General, demanding to see the Minister instead. The event, that is – turning down the meeting with the Secretary General. The Secretary General! – including the emphasis and repetition, is described by Pikalo (beginning at 00:43:40) as an example of poor communication etiquette on the side of the school.

Also, “professor” not “teacher” is the correct way to address a high school teacher with a certain level of education, which is the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport’s job to know. It is not that Mr. Secretary General Mitja Blagajne, PhD, doesn’t care about such titles. The Secretary General did state his own title with great pride and did not call himself merely a public servant. Misstating the professor’s title was an expression of contempt, although as a gaslighter he would probably now claim he has always been respectful, and that whoever says otherwise should apologise to all the teachers they just said were not worth all the respect they deserve.

The exchange between the Secretary General and the professor quoted above was the only contribution the former made to the discussion and we cannot but remember the story about three of the Education Ministry’s PR people, who left their jobs in November last year. Minister Jernej Pikalo “has denied any hints that mobbing [in Slovenian the word often refers to workplace harassment in general] was the reason, and  Mitja Blaganje explained that they have not been able to find a common language regarding the payment of additional work” wrote Siol.si at the time.   

After Blaganja, it was time for another Secretary, just Secretary this time, Jernej Štromajer, to throw some of his wisdom at the disrespectful peasants who were sitting before him.

Štromajer opens with the following sentence:

1:22:37 Štromajer: Moram priznat, da sem iskreno razočaran nad tem izvajanjem. Ker ne morem verjet, da sedimo tule že uro in pol in sedaj smo poslušali nek vnaprej napisan traktat, brez da bi se poslušalo, kaj je bilo pred tem povedano.

As expected, he then continues to perform exactly what he tried to criticise in his attempt at disqualifying another professor from the school for reading his statement instead of, perhaps, changing his mind after the minister reiterated – why is there nobody listening? – that there is nothing for the teachers, students and others concerned about the school to worry about:

1:22:55 Štromajer: Zdaj, trditi, da je šola s tem pismom o nameri kakorkoli bila ogrožena je malo smelo rečeno. Ker cilj tega pisma o nameri je ravno nasproten. Namreč, da se problematično stanje, ki je trenutno na šoli, vendarle reši. Lejte, to da šola zaseda prostor, ki ni v njeni lasti, oziroma v njenem upravljanju in po domače rečeno skvota v 23% stavbe v Kiržankah v lasti drugega subjekta, čeprav je to mestna občina Ljubljana, se verjetno vsi strinjamo, da v neki pravni državi preprosto ni vzdržno. In zato je naše ministrstvo s pismom o nameri želelo razrešiti odprta vprašanja, ki so se dolga leta nabirala med MOL-om in državo in eno izmed teh je tudi, kot ste omenili, upravljanje določenih prostorov v Križankah. […] ampak minister vam je danes tukaj jasno povedal, mi je žal, da ne poslušate, da strah, da bi šola ostala brez strehe nad glavo, ne obstaja.

Štromajer is talking about the 23% that was given to the city government by the first instance court in 2007, after the City sued the Ministry for a larger share of Križanke. The Ministry of Education then didn’t bother to appeal, a fact stated in the debate on several occasions, as was the legality of the Minister’s promises, something Štromajer didn’t address. Perhaps he wasn’t listening? In either case, we are very disappointed by your performance, Mr. Štromajer.

At the end of the session, members of the boards voted against the proposals of Levica (with 8 votes in favour and 8 votes against its proposals) and supported the coalition’s conclusions for the Ministry to re-examine the possibility for the school to remain at its current location and report its findings back to the board in three months. Another decision adopted by the coalition members was to put a memorial plaque on a wall of Kiržanke along with a memorial room inside, in memory of a school that was once there.

Just a few days later, the Minister’s assurance that the school would not be pushed out of its current premises have been made obsolete by the fall of the coalition he was a part of, while the 2007 court decision on giving 23% of the school to the City of Ljubljana, the signed letter of intent and Mayor Janković’s threats to kick the school out in the street later this year remain as real as ever.

In conclusion, as Professor Apolonija Simon suggests in her statement (1:04:30), the “chronology of the event(s) in which Križanke was gradually getting lost, gives an impression that the Ministry wants to get rid of Križanke” and, if I may add, does not seem to be very concerned with what happens to the famed school that resides in it, or the students who are studying there.

Where did you live before Slovenia, and what brought you here?

We were living in Istanbul, Turkey. Last year we came to Ljubljana for a vacation and we loved the country. Actually, we always had an idea of moving abroad. After this trip, we decided to move to Slovenia, because when you compare it with İstanbul here is so green, so peaceful, and there’s no traffic. If you are a tourist, İstanbul is a beautiful city but if you are living and working there it’s too hard to live. Such as, everyday I have to go to work and it takes two hours going and two hours coming back. It is really exhausting. So all these reasons brought us to Slovenia.

How was the process of moving here?

After our trip, we talked with some consulting firms about the investment conditions to get a visa. We evaluated these and decided they suited us. Then we started to look at property to buy in Slovenia, we used bolha.com and nepremicnine.net, but we could not find anything and so we came to Slovenia once more. We visited Ljubljana, Portorož, Koper and Maribor. That’s how we found our store in Maribor.

Overall, the experience of this was really good. We were travelling to different cities and at the same time we were looking for a place which was good for us.

However, we were told that making an investment is the best option if you want to move here, you don’t need to wait too long and can get your visa within three months. But in fact it took much more than more than three months, eight months in total, and that was hard and stressful for us.

Have you started to learn Slovene?

We applied for the governments language course, but when we went we saw that they were teaching Slovene with Slovene. There is no class from English to Slovene. This is a problem for us, but we’re trying to learn at home with some online courses.

What work did you do back home?

Both of us have bachelor’s degrees and graduated from İstanbul University. After I graduated from the business administration department I worked as an auditor for four years and after that worked two years in a bank as a senior specialist in the financial reporting department. Omer, my husband, graduated in tourism management, and worked in the tourism sector. Then he took a bakery course and learned how to become a pastry chef. He had a bakery/café in İstanbul for five years before we came here.

What’s your business in Maribor?

We opened our restaurant three months ago.  We make large baked potato, mix it with butter and mozzarella cheese (like a puree) and put different types of salad on it. This is a special kind of Turkish street food. We also have waffles with a different toppings. And of course, we have original Turkish baklava, Turkish coffee and Turkish tea.

Where can people find out more about your work?

We have a Facebook page, Istanbul kumpir & waffle, and Instagram page istanbulkumpirandwaffle. The best thing is to come and visit us and try some Turkish street food, at Slovenska Ulica 42, 2000 Maribor.

If you’d like to share your story with our readers, please get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How does Ljubljana rate compared to other cities with regard to burnout and general stress among those in employment? A website that sells mattresses, Savvy Sleeper, recently commissioned an analysis that looked at nine different factors – work-related stress, employee presenteeism, lack of motivation at work, annual work hours, vacation time, working more than 48 hours a week, the prevalence of mental health disorders and substance abuse, getting less than 7 hours of sleep, and time spent commuting –  and used data from sources such as Glassdoor, UBS and the International Labour Organization – to rank 69 cities, from those with the highest to lowest levels of burnout.

For anyone struggling in Šiška, exhausted in Vič, or feeling underemployed in Trnovo the results may come as a surprise, along with the shocking realisation that things could be worse. For others, who skip to work with a song in their hearts and sleep soundly at night, they’ll confirm that the city is one that manages to balance development with a slower, more manageable pace than in many other capitals, with life still lived on a human scale.

Screenshot: Savvy Sleeper

More specifically, out of 69 cities Ljubljana is said to have the second lowest level of burnout, with the related text on the best three being as follows:

The lowest scoring global city for work burnout is Tallinn, Estonia. The city offers a generous amount of vacation, with an average of 29.1 paid days off. Plus, just 5.6% of the population work more than 48 hours a week.

Ljubljana, Slovenia (68th) has the second-lowest risk of employee burnout. Just 5.5% of Slovenia’s population works more than 48 hours a week. While commuters spend only 27.93 minutes in traffic to and from work, compared to the average of all analysed cities, 40.10 minutes.

Oslo, Norway (67th) has been reported to be one of the happiest places in the world according to the World Happiness Report. Work-life balance is taken very seriously in Norway and just 4.2% of the entire population works 48 hours or more a week.

However, within this it should be noted that Ljubljana has relatively high levels of lack of motivation at work (#11), and that no data was obtained for work-related stress from Glassdoor for the city.

Looking at the end of the scale, the top 10 most stressed cities are said to be Tokyo, Mumbai, Seoul, Istanbul, Manila, Jakarta, Hanoi, Taipei, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires, with seven of these being in Asia. Looking at the EU, the most stressed cities are London (at #14), Rome (#21) and Athens (29).

It’s an interesting list to consider as you think about the trade offs between living in a 24-hour cosmopolitan metropolis and a smaller city in a relative backwater, and the different opportunities they provide for development and peace of mind. You can see the full list, and more details, here.

STA, 27 January 2020 - Representatives of Slovenian builders are protesting against what they perceive as the state opening doors wide to builders from third countries. This brings disloyal competition to Slovenian companies and results in fewer jobs and lower wages for Slovenian workers, they believe.

"Foreign bidders from third countries are disloyal competition to domestic contractors," Sonja Šmuc, the director general of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS), said in a press release on Monday.

According to Šmuc, the exclusive criteria for picking contractors in public construction tenders is the lowest price, which means that bidders who are not bound with the collective bargaining agreement for the construction sector are strongly favoured.

She noted that the Slovenian construction sector had expanded by 3% last year, while its further development mostly depended on the state, as contracts awarded by the state represented 60% of the construction market.

"The contracting authority is opening doors for the construction of major infrastructural projects to companies from outside the EU much wider than other European countries do," Šmuc noted.

She added that these countries "have different welfare and worker standards" and wondered whether Slovenians would sit and watch if the state said it did not need Slovenian farmers as bread and milk could be imported from countries where people work for a few euros a day.

Jože Renar, director of the GZS's chamber of construction and building materials industry, said that what is hard to understand was the very fact that Slovenia was opening the door of its market to bidders from third countries so generously.

"What is even harder to understand is that they are allowed to pay their employees less than Slovenian companies have to pay their employees. Foreigners ignoring the achievements of Slovenian social dialogue in public tenders to get deals financed with taxpayer money defies the fundamental economic and welfare logic."

The chamber's president Kristjan Mugerli said that this way, contracting authorities undermine the efforts of social dialogue to secure higher wages and welfare standard for employees.

"By doing so, we also want to increase the extremely low interest of young people in Slovenia for construction professions, which is among the lowest in the EU," he added.

According to Oskar Komac of the Trade Union of Construction Workers, by making such decisions the state is sending a clear message to construction workers that "their wages, which are already low, are too high".

"This is social dumping in its most elementary form and consequences will be severe and lasting for the Slovenian construction sector, which has more than 60,000 workers and is one of the largest employers," he added.

Renar also stressed that thorough changes in public procurement procedures in this field were needed. "Slovenia should rethink its international economic guidelines and follow the EU guidelines on the participation of third-country bidders and goods on the EU public contract market."

STA, 27 January 2020 - The government's relative inefficiency and PM Marjan Šarec's realising it would be very hard to secure a majority to appoint two new ministers after the defence and finance ministers have announced stepping down, are the reasons for which Šarec stepped down, pundits have told the STA. They say it is now hard to predict the course of developments.

"Šarec has apparently assessed that given the degree of its inefficiency, the government would not be able to implement certain measures and he would be eventually blamed for it, so he decided to check the situation in an election now rather than any time later," says Domovina news portal editor Rok Čakš.

Andraž Zorko of pollster Valicon meanwhile says there are several reasons for Šarec's resignation, but the key cause was Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj's resignation, announced today.

Zorko says that replacing one minister after Defence Minister Karl Erjavec announced his plan to resign earlier this month would have been a major challenge in itself.

Čakš agrees, saying December's appointment of Angelika Mlinar as cohesion minister "caused this government agonising pain" and "the question is how much energy and time would have to be invested to get a new finance minister through parliament".

However, Šarec' move was not entirely unexpected since he is the only one who could gain from an early election, "while it was harder to imagine he would trigger the process leading to an early election himself".

Zorko believes that while future developments are uncertain, they will depend on the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), saying "the SMC is the key piece on the chess board and SMC leader Zdravko Počivalšek the bishop".

Of course, this is true only if the opposition Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi) assess an early election is not a good possibility, he says.

The two conservative parties have 33 MPs in the 90-year parliament, so if joined by 10 SMC MPs, they they would need just another small party - for instance the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) or the three MPs of the opposition National Party (SNS) to form a coalition.

Similarly, Čakš sees the coalition SAB as the main candidate to switch coalitions, since its chances to make it to parliament are rather slim, according to polls.

Among the parties "probably not keen on an early election" he also mentions the SNS, and notes that only a simple majority is needed to appoint a new prime minister-designate.

Should the parties opt to form a new coalition instead of going to an early election, Zorko and Čakč could not anticipate who the prime minister-designate would be.

Zorko finds it likely it would be a non-partisan candidate with strong support in parliament, or NSi leader Matej Tonin or SMC leader Zdravko Počivalšek.

In case of an early election, Zorko expects an unpredictable situation, and Čakš says the interpretation of who is to be blamed for the early election in the media will be crucial.

"This is where Šarec risks the most," says Čaks, arguing that if he manages to convince the public that he found himself in a dead-end and that he needs more votes to run the country successfully, then he could win the election.

Meanwhile, constitutional jurist Ciril Ribičič says an early election could not be disputed because the deadline set by the Constitutional Court to change electoral legislation has not yet expired.

Although it is not good for an election to be held if the electoral laws are not in line with the Constitution, "it's not as bad as it may seem".

Ribičič points to the fact that "only one thing is not in line with the Constitution, namely the different sizes of electoral districts".

In December 2018, the Constitutional Court gave parliament two years to change the legislation.

STA, 27 January 2020 - The LMŠ-led minority government, whose disbanding was announced today 16 months into its term, struggled since its very start with securing parliamentary support as well as with strife in the five-member coalition and with its erstwhile partner, the Left. Serious reforms appeared unattainable, healthcare funding being the latest case in point.

The centre-left government was formed by Marjan Šarec, a novice in the national political arena, and his LMŠ party with the SocDems, Modern Centre Party (SMC), the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) after the relative election winner Janez Janša and his right-wing Democrats (SDS) failed to put together a coalition.

A cooperation agreement with the opposition Left was an important component of the equation, but cracks soon appeared in the relationship with the far-left party, starting with Šarec's hiring of Damir Črnčec, a radical opponent of migration, as national security state secretary in his office.

While the Left managed to push through some of its agenda, mostly to improve the lives of low-income earners, it insisted that the bulk of the pledges made in the cooperation agreement were being ignored.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the coalition's rejection in the autumn of the Left's proposal for scrapping the voluntary top-up insurance system that several governments had attempted to do away with to no avail in the past.

While the Left withdrew from the partnership agreement at the start of November, the coalition pushed ahead with the healthcare funding reform.

The Left's bill was reshaped, but in a way that was not to the liking of Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj, who resigned earlier today. The resignation of Bertoncelj, who did not state a clear reason for his decision, was followed up immediately by PM Šarec's.

Šarec, who insists his resignation was not the result of the differences between Health Minister Aleš Šabeder and Bertoncelj, was also facing the search for a new defence minister, with Karl Erjavec announcing his resignation recently after failing to get reappointed DeSUS leader.

After losing the Left, the minority coalition had come to rely on the opposition National Party (SNS) in parliamentary voting, and the appointment of Development and Cohesion Minister Angelika Mlinar at the end of 2019 already proved a major challenge.

Cabinet staffing had also kept Šarec busy before that, with five ministers resigning before Erjavec and Bertoncelj.

Meanwhile, the need for structural reforms was raised by many during the government's term, but the coalition partners acknowledged on several occasions that adopting them would be difficult in a minority government situation.

On the other hand, the economic boom helped keep the government going, with record high budgets envisaged for 2020 and 2021.

The government managed to slightly tweak pension and tax legislation, while struggling somewhat with bills related to welfare.

It failed to implement Constitutional Court rulings requiring changes to electoral legislation and to funding rules for private primary schools.

The latter case, which has seen the government refuse putting state funding for private schools on a par with that for public schools, led to Šarec being subjected to an SDS and SNS-initiated impeachment vote at the start of 2019.

Šarec, who survived the vote, has recently also had to deal with accusations he help an acquaintance get a job at intelligence and security agency SOVA.

He said today that the LMŠ's 13 MPs and the current coalition did not suffice to meet people's expectations but that this could change with the early election.

The LMŠ remained in the lead in the latest Mediana agency poll commissioned by the private broadcaster POP TV. It gained two points compared to December to poll at 15.1% and the SDS added 1.4 points to 14.1%, showed the results, released on Sunday.

The SD and the Left were tied in third place at 7.2%, the centre-right opposition New Slovenia (NSi) ranked fifth at 6.2%, DeSUS got 4.1% in sixth, while all other parties fell well short of the 4% parliamentary threshold.

STA, 27 January 2020 - The coordination group for monitoring and managing contagious diseases discussing the coronavirus outbreak announced in Ljubljana on Monday that Slovenia was braced for a potential outbreak. It is monitoring the situation carefully and cooperating with all WHO member states in efforts to prevent the spreading of the virus.

Mojca Gobec from the Health Ministry asserted that the country was prepared for a potential outbreak. "It is very important that we are ready because we can expect imported cases," said Gobec, the head of the public health directorate at the ministry.

It is essential that the system contains the infection and reduces the risk of the spreading of the virus to a minimum, she pointed out a press conference after today's meeting.

Medical staff has been acquainted with the procedure to prevent further contamination in case the virus occurs in Slovenia, said the head of the Ljubljana clinic for infectious disease, Tatjana Lejko Zupanc.

Maja Sočan from the National Institute of Public Health urged against travelling to China, noting that the country had run out of protective masks and that transport had been hindered because of the virus.

She noted that measures introduced at airports to prevent the spreading of the virus from China such as the measurement of body temperature were not efficient, because the disease can be spread before the symptoms occur.

"Thermal cameras seem to be a very agreeable measure at first glance, but we must be aware that most passengers arrive by land," she said.

Lejko Zupanc said that such infections were nothing new, noting that primarily at risk were the people with chronic diseases and those who are fragile.

The pneumonia-like illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus, which appeared in December in Wuhan, central China, has so far claimed at least 80 lives. More than 2,700 people have been infected.

Cases of infections have been recorded in several other countries as well, including the US and France.

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A schedule of all the main events involving Slovenia this week can be found here

This summary is provided by the STA:

PM Šarec steps down, snap election likely

LJUBLJANA - PM Marjan Šarec announced his resignation, saying he could not achieve what he had set out to do with the current minority coalition. Coming only minutes after Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj's resignation, Šarec's announcement was a surprise to all coalition partners and the public. He called for a snap election, arguing people should get the chance to show whether they trust him or not. He indicated he had discussed cooperation for the election with the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), however its leader Zdravko Počivalšek said an early election was not necessary. The SMC is however one of only three small parliamentary parties not favouring an early election and Slovenians could head to the polls in April.

Analysts uncertain about developments after PM's resignation

LJUBLJANA - The government's relative inefficiency and PM Marjan Šarec's realising it would be very hard to secure a majority to appoint two new ministers after the defence and finance ministers have stepped down, are among the reasons for which Šarec resigned, pundits told the STA, noting it was now hard to predict the future course of developments. While an early election is an option, a new coalition could also not be entirely ruled out. Domovina news portal editor Rok Čakš said Šarec' move had not been entirely unexpected since he is the only one who could gain from an early election, but it had been harder to imagine he would trigger the process leading to an early election himself.

Slovenia prepared for outbreak of coronavirus

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's coordination group for monitoring and managing contagious diseases discussed the coronavirus outbreak in China today, announcing Slovenia was prepared for a potential outbreak. The country is monitoring the situation carefully and cooperating with all WHO member states in efforts to prevent the spreading of the virus. Mojca Gobec from the Health Ministry said it was very important to be ready "because we can expect imported cases". It is essential that the system contains the infection and reduces the risk of virus spreading to a minimum, she pointed out a press conference after today's meeting.

Employers want stability, unions say reforms will be delayed as Šarec resigns

LJUBLJANA - Representatives of employers are not very surprised by the resignation of Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, as they perceive the current situation as unpredictable and unstable, with a noticeable standstill in the implementation of major projects and structural reforms. Trade union representatives meanwhile said the stepping down meant a departure from the necessary reforms and measures in healthcare, long-term care and housing policy. They also understand that it was hard for the government to push reforms through due to the lack of support.

PM's party enhances lead in POP TV poll

LJUBLJANA - The Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) remains in the lead in the latest poll commissioned by the private broadcaster POP TV, having increased its margin ahead of the opposition Democrats (SDS) to one percentage point. The LMŠ gained two points compared to December to poll at 15.1% and the SDS added 1.4 points to 14.1%. The coalition Social Democrats (SD) and the opposition Left are tied in third place at 7.2% after the SD gained 0.5 points and the Left slipped back 1.7 points. The opposition New Slovenia (NSi) ranks fifth at 6.2%, up from 5.3% in December, followed by the coalition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) at 4.1%. The other parties would not make it past the 4% parliamentary threshold. The voter approval rating for the government has also increased.

Builders oppose state opening doors to third-country bidders

LJUBLJANA - The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) protested against what it perceives as the state opening doors wide to builders from third countries. This brings disloyal competition to Slovenian companies and results in fewer jobs and lower wages for Slovenian workers. These companies come from countries that have different welfare and worker standards, said GZS boss Sonja Šmuc and wondered whether Slovenians would sit and watch if the state said it did not need Slovenian farmers as bread and milk could be imported from countries where people work for a few euros a day. "Foreigners ignoring the achievements of Slovenian social dialogue in public tenders getting deals financed with taxpayer money defies the fundamental economic and welfare logic," said Jože Renar of GZS.

Pahor and Slovenian survivors in Auschwitz for liberation anniversary

OSWIECIM, Poland/LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor attended a memorial marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, accompanied by Slovenian camp survivors. He lit a candle to honour the victims at a memorial plaque which has since 2008 featured an inscription in Slovenian. The delegation featured Sonja Vrščaj, Elizabeta Kumar Maurič, Marija Frlan and Lidija Rijavec Simčič, who were deported to the camp, as well as Janez Deželak, one of hundreds of stolen children, who were separated from their parents after Nazi occupation. Meanwhile, parliamentary Speaker Dejan Židan expressed concern over rising harsh attitudes around the world.

Business sentiment recovery continues

LJUBLJANA - Business sentiment in Slovenia stood at 4.1 percentage points in January, up 1.1 percentage points on December but eight percentage points below the January 2019 level. The second consecutive monthly increase comes after the sentiment index fell to 2.4 points in November, the lowest since late 2014, in what was the fourth consecutive month of decline. According to the figures released by the Statistics Office, confidence in manufacturing contributed 0.6 points to the monthly increase, in services 0.4 points, among consumers 0.3 points and in construction 0.1 points.

Construction of InnoRenew research institute launched

IZOLA - The InnoRenew Centre of Excellence, a research institute for renewable materials and healthy environment, has launched construction of its new facility on the university campus in the coastal town of Izola. The new two-building facility, to be completed in September 2021, will be unique in that it will a hybrid of wood, concrete and steel. The upper three storeys will be fully wooden, making it the biggest wooden building in Slovenia. InnoRenew, established in 2017 and launched in 2018, is one of only ten centres of excellence co-funded from the EU's Horizon 2020 programme. It has received EUR 15 million from the EU and another 30 million from the Slovenian state budget.

Govt endorses scholarship scheme for 2020-2024

LJUBLJANA - The government endorsed at a correspondence session a scholarship scheme for the next five-year period, providing some EUR 1.23 million for scholarship for shortage occupations a year, the same as so far. The list of shortage occupations remains more or less the same as in the 2015-2019 policy. Most shortage occupations remain those requiring secondary education. While some programmes such as carpenter, toolmaker and mechatronic engineer have become more popular with the young since 2015, others such as chimney sweep and body shop mechanics remain less popular regardless of the scholarship.

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STA, 27 January 2020 - PM Marjan Šarec announced his resignation on Monday after Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj stepped down, presumably over differences regarding a bill scrapping top-up health insurance. Šarec said he could not achieve what he had set out to do with the current minority coalition. The most likely scenario seems to be snap election.

Šarec said that he "cannot fulfil people's expectations at the moment with 13 MPs and this coalition", but stressed he could fulfil them after an early election.

He seems eager to find out whether the polls showing 50% support for the government are right and whether the approval ratings are realistic or not.

Most parties also seem to favour going to the polls early, although the possibility of forming a new coalition in this term cannot be completely ruled out yet.

An advocate of the latter option seems to be Zdravko Počivalšek, the leader of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), which Šarec mentioned as a potential pre-election ally. He said he did not see the need for a snap election.

In contrast, Janez Janša, the leader of the largest opposition party, the Democrats (SDS), deems an early election by far the likeliest and best option.

Given the current composition of the National Assembly, Janša believes it would be hard to form a solid development coalition.

But he proposes for the time ahead of the election, which he reckons could be held in the second half of April, to be used to pass what he says are urgently needed laws, including a bill on the demographic fund, a bill to cut waiting times in healthcare and a bill on public procurement in healthcare.

Similarly, the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) wants to push through parliament the bill to cut waiting times in healthcare, and amendments to the penal code to step up prosecution of sex abuse.

The NSi, Left, and the coalition Social Democrats (SD) all favour an early election. The new leader of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), Aleksandra Pivec, said DeSUS was ready for a fresh election but would want to talk things through in the party before taking any decisions.

Meanwhile, the coalition SMC and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) are not keen on snap election, as is not the opposition National Party (SNS).

Both the SDS and NSi indicated that changes to the electoral law needed after the Constitutional Court found the existing legislation unconstitutional were no longer possible ahead of a fresh election.

Responding to the government collapse, employers and trade unions said this would delay the necessary reforms in healthcare, long-term care, housing policy, labour relationships act, pension reform and other fields.

Trade unions said the start of Šarec's term had been promising, with changes to the minimum wage and abolition of austerity measures, but later the government work came to a standstill due to problems with securing a majority.

Representatives of employers think Šarec "cut the Gordian Knot" today, given that there had been no coordinated political direction or predictability in recent months.

As there are many challenges to be tackled, they want Slovenia to get a new government with a clear political mandate as soon as possible.

Analysts believe the reasons for the government collapse were its relative inefficiency and Šarec's realisation that it would be very hard to secure a majority to appoint two new ministers after the defence and finance ministers stepped down.

"Šarec has apparently assessed that given the degree of its inefficiency, the government would not be able to implement certain measures and he would be eventually blamed for it, so he decided to check the situation in an election now rather than any time later," Domovina news portal editor Rok Čakš said.

In the 16 months in office, the minority government of the LMŠ, SD, SMC, SAB and DeSUS, which was formed after the 2018 early election following Janša's failure to form a coalition even though his party won a plurality of the vote, did not implement any substantial reform.

It managed to push through some changes to pension and tax legislation, but fell short of modifying laws on social affairs.

Two important Constitution Court decisions also remain unimplemented, the one demanding changes to the election legislation and the ruling concerning the financing of private primary schools.

Slovenia's 13th government did, however, manage to pass a record EUR 10 billion plus budgets for 2020 and 2012, both with surplus.

Šarec's term as prime minister will end when the National Assembly takes note of his resignation. This could happen as early as Wednesday. The term of the entire cabinet will end at the same time and the government will assume a caretaker role. A snap election could be held in late April.

According to the latest public opinion polls, Šarec is the second most popular politician in the country preceded only by President Borut Pahor.

His LMŠ party is neck-and-neck with Janša's SDS in topping the party rankings. The most recent poll conducted by pollster Mediana put the LMŠ's support at 15.1%, ahead of the SDS, which polled at 14.1%.

Šarec is the fourth Slovenian prime minister to resign, following Janez Drnovšek in December 2002, Alenka Bratušek in May 2014 and Miro Cerar in March 2018.

STA, 27 January - President Borut Pahor is in Poland to attend a memorial marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, accompanied by Slovenian camp survivors. He will lay a candle to honour the victims at a memorial plaque which features an inscription in Slovene since 2008.

The delegation includes Sonja Vrščaj, Elizabeta Kumar Maurič, Marija Frlan and Lidija Rijavec Simčič, who were deported to the camp, as well as Janez Deželak, one of hundreds of Stolen Children, who were separated from their parents after Nazi occupation.

The commemoration was held at the Oswiecim Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau under the auspices of Poland's President Andrzej Duda.

During the Second World War, some six million people died in Poland, including three million Polish Jews, mostly in concentration camps.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is honoured every year on 27 January, coinciding with the anniversary of Auschwitz liberation.

The Nazis killed more than a million people in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. More than 2,300 people were deported there from Slovenia, with over 1,300 dying before the liberation.

Nikoli več. #NeverAgain #HMD2020 #Auschwitz75 #WeRemember #HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/f4VQOGuiRz

— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) January 27, 2020

The camp was liberated on 27 January in 1945 by the Soviet troops. Merely some 7,650 ill and debilitated prisoners survived.

Pahor is attending the memorial due to its great symbolic significance, said the president's office. The Slovenian delegation is bearing witness to the horrors of WWII, which are still leaving bitter traces of memories and suffering, said Pahor in a statement.

It is our moral duty that we never forget, that we contribute to a peaceful resolution of all issues and fight to ensure that such atrocities may never happen again, he highlighted.

Meanwhile, Kumar Mavrič expressed satisfaction that the most horrible crimes of the Second World War were living on not just in the memory of the survivors but also in the memory of young generations.

Vrščaj said that the survivors' suffering was part of their fight for freedom, urging the young to love their homeland. "We never said 'if we come home', but 'when we come home'."

Another survivor, Frlan, who turned 100 today, was succinct in saying "a reminder for the young and remembrance for the elderly".

Pahor, who attended the World Holocaust Forum marking the anniversary in Jerusalem last week, will also address a memorial ceremony in Lendava's synagogue on Thursday.

He will wrap up the Holocaust remembrance series of events in May by holding an annual debate featuring the survivors and secondary school students.

Today, a series of events to honour the Holocaust Remembrance Day is taking place in Slovenia, among them a concert of songs performed in secret meetings by an internee of the Sachsenhausen camp. Moreover, the Jewish Cultural centre will screen Shoah, a 1985 film by Claude Lanzmann.

Related: Marija Frlan, Slovenian Survivor of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, to Celebrate 100th Birthday on Holocaust Remembrance Day