STA, 19 November 2018 - Bojan Šrot, who has been unrivalled as the mayor of Celje for 20 years, won another term on Sunday, sweeping the field in the first round with 56% after more than half of the votes counted. Turnout was 35%.

"The result is perhaps slightly more modest than we're used to, but given that the seven mayoral candidates are a record figure in the last 20 years, I'm very happy," Šrot told TV Slovenija.

The 58-year-old, who only had to do a run-off during his first run for mayor, rejected those claiming he has been in power for too long, saying that this was actually "an advantage, as experience helps a lot when being mayor".

"I still have like two terms worth of energy and plans left in me," said the mayor, who fielded his own list for the city council this time after he had previously ran as part of the People's Party (SLS), which he led between 2007 and 2009.

Meanwhile, Sandi Sendelbah, a former municipal accountant who was recently sacked by the mayor, proved Šrot's most serious challenger. He has 18% after more than half of votes have been counted

Sendelbah ran alone as his list Open Celje was rejected for administrative reasons.

A first-round win by Šrot had not been a forgone conclusion, with polls carried out among the residents suggesting that many people indeed want change.

In October, half of respondents said it was time for a change at the helm of the municipality, and only 20% said the current team should stay on.

All our Celje stories are here

STA, 19 November 2018 - The first round of the local election in Maribor has brought the expected run-off between entrepreneur Saša Arsenovič and former mayor Franc Kangler. After almost all of the votes counted, they won 38% and 31% respectively. Incumbent Andrej Fištravec is far behind in third place with 9%. Turnout in the country's second largest city reached 49.67%.

While the mayoral race still remains to be decided, the seats in the 44-member city council have been distributed. Arsenovič's list has won 12 and and Kangler's 10.

Arsenovič is a businessman

Arsenovič, a political novice who has earned respect in city with several successful restaurants and by helping renovate and revive Maribor's run-down old town, said the people of Maribor had shown they wanted change.

"The real winner today is Maribor. I thank the people for going to the polls. I feel Maribor wants real change and I promise...that this time all the projects being announced for so many years will also be executed," said the 52-year-old, who is running with the support of the Modern Centre Party (SMC).

The law graduate, who is said to have earned his start-up capital working long days abroad as a tennis coach, entered the race at the eleventh hour and has mostly had to defend himself over his companies' project-related debts.

He hopes the campaign ahead of the second round on 2 December will bring more content: "I hope we will finally start talking about Maribor's development and less about my personal affairs."

Kangler is a former Mayor of Maribor

Kangler, who ran Maribor from 2006 to late 2012 when he resigned amid violent mass protests, was also happy with the result, arguing the people had recognised "our work".

The former police officer, who is supported by several right-wing parties, said that his campaign had been positive, respectful to other candidates and that things would get interesting in the second round.

Asked if the results showed the voters had forgiven and forgotten, Kangler said there was "nothing to forgive". "All the court cases against me are closed, this was a political process against me," the 53-year-old told TV Slovenija.

Outgoing mayor also lost in the city council

Meanwhile, Fištravec, a 61-year-old sociologist who won his first term in 2013 with the support of the protest movement that swept away Kangler, commented by saying that the only thing that mattered was that Maribor was doing better now after it had been stagnating for 30 years.

While the outgoing mayor is widely perceived to have failed with efforts to boost the city's economy with the help of Chinese investments, he argued that all the indicators were positive, including those for employment and investments.

Fištravec's list also suffered the heaviest losses in the city council. While it had nine councillors in the last term, it got three this time.

Three councillors were also secured by the Democrat (SDS), which thus lost one seat, and by the SMC, which had 6 in the previous term.

Analysing the results for the STA, journalists and Maribor experts Peter Jančič and Aljoša Peršak both see the race as completely open.

"The clash will definitely be interesting and it is not possible to say that Kangler, a more familiar face in politics, has an advantage," said Jančič, who also noted that turnout had increased substantially from the 38% four years ago.

Peršak feels that Arsenovič beating Kangler in the first round was a slight surprise as polls had had the former mayor in the lead.

Peršak expects Arsenovič to cast himself as the "change" candidate ahead of the run-off, while Kangler is likely to focus on successful past projects, steering away from the "memory of 2012, which has obviously not faded".

Both analysts also highlighted the crushing defeat of Fištravec. While Peršak argued that the negative campaign had not paid off for Fištravec, Jančič said "the defeat serves him right"

"He did not pay for the election campaign four years ago, not for the councillors nor for his own. He should have not even been running the city," Jančič said.

STA, 19 November 2018 - Zoran Janković won his fourth straight term as mayor of Slovenia's capital as voters overwhelmingly endorsed his vision of Ljubljana's development in Sunday's local elections and his list regained majority in the local council.

According to incomplete results, Janković secured 61.4% of the vote, which is slightly more than in the 2014 election (57.3%).

Anže Logar, the candidate of the Democratic Party (SDS) who enjoyed the support of the entire right-wing bloc, won 28.8% of the vote, more than any other candidate challenging Janković in his 12-year stint as Ljubljana mayor.

Janković's list won 23 seats in the 45-seat city council to regain the majority he held in his first two terms, after winning 21 seats in the 2014 election.

The SDS will be the second strongest faction with ten councillors, three more than in the current council, followed by the Left, which gained one seat to four. The conservative New Slovenia (NSi) and the Social Democrats (SD) will have two seats each.

The Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), the Modern Centre Party (SMC) and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB), which together with the SD make up the minority national government, secured one seat each.

In his first comment on the election victory, the 65-year-old Serbian-born manager said the outcome showed the people of Ljubljana "want the kind of development they have seen so far".

Janković's time as Ljubljana Mayor has seen a transformed city, with allegations of corruption

Over the past 12 years, Janković and his team transformed Ljubljana through a series of projects, including a complete makeover of the city centre, large sections of which have been pedestrianised.

However, Janković has been facing recurring allegations of corruption, cronyism and shady ways in which the city has been awarding contracts to private partners, as well as criticism of his autocratic style of leadership.

Janković said that the people of Ljubljana showed they wanted an open, solidarity-based and comrade-like town, a reference to Logar's party, which has been promoting anti-migrant views, and Longar's statement that he would not attend a gay pride parade.

Both Janković and Logar said they were glad that the turnout was higher than four years ago. Data available so far show that 29.86% of the voters turned out in Ljubljana until 4 PM, which compares to 22.06% four years ago when the final turnout was 35.92%.

Janković said he would have wanted the turnout to be even higher, but that the outcome had obviously been clear beforehand. "Many reckoned that I'll win in the first round and they chose to stay at home or take a trip."

Looking at his new term, Janković announced 500 more projects in Ljubljana, which he said would bring greater quality of life and more global awards. Ljubljana won the title of the European Green Capital in 2016. He dismissed criticism as talk devoid of argument and populism.

Janković congratulated Logar on his showing, saying that he unified the right bloc. But he also said that the voters in this election was split along the left-right divide and that the proportion won by Logar was obviously as much as the right could count on winning in Ljubljana.

Commenting on the outcome of his list, he pledged to build a coalition even though his list won a majority, "with those who support the development programme. But I won't engage in dealing out."

Logar expressed his satisfaction that more people turned out in Ljubljana than four years ago, which he suggested was thanks his "agile election campaign" which "woke the electoral base from sleep".

Logar said considering that he and Janković won 90% of the vote, the question was that meant for the government coalition parties. He also said that if the ruling coalition "offered one strong candidate, we would have a run-off".

Logar's party boss, Janez Janša commented that Janković's "method appears to be more effective than a classic approach to democracy", while he would not say whether Logar was his successor.

Asked who could defeat Janković, Janša said it was the people of Ljubljana. "I doubt though that anyone of potential political competition in a position to apply the same methods as he [Janković] does".

Of the remaining eight mayoral contenders, Milan Jakopovič, the candidate of the Left, came in third with 3.8% of the vote.

The best result among the candidates of the government coalition parties appears to have been secured by Dragan Matić of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) in fifth with 1.5%.

Born in a village near Serbia's Smederevo on 1 January 1953, Janković moved to Ljubljana with his family when still a child. He graduated from the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics and in 1984 took his first executive post as he was appointed acting director of Mercator Investa.

In 1997 he was appointed chairman of Mercator, which he built into a market leader in the region before being served a government-sponsored no-cause dismissal by Mercator owners in 2005, at the time of the centre-right government of Democrat (SDS) leader Janez Janša.

Ever since he has been portrayed, and treated, as an arch-rival of Janša's even though they appear less dissimilar as they are willing to admit.

They both suffered heavy political setbacks; despite winning this year's general election, Janša was unable to form a government, which was exactly what happened to Janković during his foray into national politics in 2011.

They have both had run-ins with law enforcement and they both faced revelations by the anti-graft watchdog in early 2013 that they misreported their assets.

All our stories on Zoran Janković can be found here

Below is a review of today’s news in Slovenia, summarised by the headlines in the daily newspapers for Monday, 19 November 2018, as prepared by the STA:

DELO

Local elections
"158 wins, another two weeks of election race elsewhere": While a "new face" shines every four years in the general election, voters at the local level bet on the faces they are already familiar with, as Sunday's general elections proved once again. (front page, 2-4)

Ski jumping
"Timi Zajc a promise for a better season": Slovenia has a new ski jumping hope in Timi Zajc, with the 18-year-old taking the 5th place in the World Cup season opener in Wisla, Poland on Sunday. The Slovenian team finished seventh a day earlier. (front page, 15)

DNEVNIK

Local elections
"Ljubljana remains Janković's fortress": Zoran Janković was decisively elected the mayor of Ljubljana for a fourth term in Sunday's elections. His biggest rival, Anže Logar of the Democrats (SDS), fared pretty well with 27.59% of the vote. (front page, 2-7)

FINANCE

Local elections
"Zoran the invincible": Ljubljana, the largest urban municipality in Slovenia, will continue to be governed by Zoran Janković as obviously no-one can find a recipe to beat him. Former Maribor Mayor Franc Kagler is meanwhile back, as he secured a run-off with businessman Saša Arsenovič. (front page, 2-3)

Abanka sale
"Who is interested in Abanka?": While at least six banks or investment funds have expressed non-binding interest for buying the third-largest bank in Slovenia, the paper wonders whether the government will ask for the sale to be suspended. (front page, 7)

Energy
"Will fuel prices drop again?": Petrol has been cheaper than diesel in Slovenia in the last 30 days, which is something that happened for the first time in the last ten years. The paper wonders whether this will remain so in the next 14-day period. (front page, 7)

VEČER

Local elections
"Kangler or Arsenovič?": In Maribor, the mayoral elections will see a run-off in two weeks, with businessman Saša Arsenovič (who unofficially won 38.2% of the vote) facing former Maribor Mayor Franc Kangler (31.4%). (front page, 2-7)

A few small festivals on around town this week, which together make up a rather programme of concerts, talks, shows and more. For one thing there’s an electronic art, music, activism and critical thinking festival, Grounded (11/21–23), with shows at several venues around town. The Facebook is here, the website here, and the schedule here. Another multi-venue multi-day event is the Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival, which runs from November 24 to December 02 - see the Cinemas in Ljubljana or LGBT+ sections below. Meanwhile, Kino Šiška is hosting CoFestival, with a focus on dance (details here). There’s also the Naked Stage all-English international improv festival – see more here. Finally, if you're in town on Saturday (24th) then consider going to Špica, not far from the centre, and seeing a one-night only festival of fire and performances, all free, called Ana Plamenita, with details here.

As ever, clicking on the venue names in the list below should get you more details with regard to the time, price and location, as well as other events on this week in the same place. Finally, if there's something you want to promote in a future edition of What's on in Ljubljana please get in touch with me at flanner(at)total-slovenia-news.com

Getting around Ljubljana

If you want to get a Ljubljana Tourist Card, which gives you travel on the city buses and entry to a lot of attractions, then you can read more about that here, and if you want to use the bike share system, as useful for visitors as it is for residents, then you can learn more by clicking this. Visitors with reduced mobility will be pleased to find that downtown Ljubljana is generally rated as good with regard to accessibility, and that there’s a free, city-sponsored app called Ljubljana by Wheelchair highlighting cafés, attractions and so on with ramps, disabled bathrooms and Eurokey facilities, which you can read about and download here. If you’re driving into town and don’t know where to part, our guide to how to park in Ljubljana is here.

Want / need cigarettes but the stores have closed? Here's an incomplete list of bars downtown that will satisfy your craving for the demon weed. While if you’re having trouble with the ATMs then here’s a guide to the Slovene you’ll see on screen. If you get a hangover then find out where to get paracetamol (and prescription drugs) in Ljubljana here, while details on emergency birth control can be found here.

Ljubljana is a small and relatively safe city, but if need to contact the police then there’s a special number for foreigners, and that’s 113.

Cinemas and films playing in Ljubljana this week

You can read about all the cinemas in town here, while a selection of what’s playing this week is below, and note that kid’s movies tend to be shown in dubbed versions, so do check before driving out to a multiplex and dropping off the young ones. That said, parents should pay attention to Kinobalon, which is Kinodvor's regular weekend series of film screenings and events for children, from babies on up, witrh special parent/child events, "first time in a cinema" screenings, and babysitting. Learn more about it here, and see the current schedule here. (And if you like watching trailers with subtitles as a way of learning Slovene, then catch up on some from earlier this year here and here).

One film festival starts at the end of the week, the Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival, which runs from November 24 to December 02. That’s right – December’s just around the corner. You can learn more about the festival, and see trailers for many of its films - all of which will be shown with English and Slovene subtitles, if needed - here

Kinodvor – The arts cinema not far from the train station, which has a nice café with books and magazines, is playing, among other features: Ash is Purest White, Winter Flies, The House that Jack Built, The Children Act, The Third Murder, Phantom Thread, Consequences and The Gruffalo and the Gruffalo’s child, with the latter also shown in a Sunday morning babysitting presentation.

Kinoteka – The revival house at one end of Miklošičeva is showing The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook), White Material (Clarie Denis), Ex Machina (Alex Garland) and The Snapper (Stephen Frears), among other features.

Kolosej - The multiplex out at BTC City Mall is playing all the big movies, which this week include Bohemian Rhapsody, Hunter Killer, Halloween,  Johnny English 3, Venom, A Star is Born, Gajin svet, Night School, Mamma Mia! 2 and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Girl in the Spider's Web, and Overlord, Little Italy, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, El mayor regalo, and The Grinch. The new movie is Air Strike, and that seems to be it, with The Grinch leaving almost as soon as it arrived.

Komuna – The cinema in a basement behind Nama department store is showing Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born.

Clubbing in Ljubljana

Compared to some European capitals it can seem that nightlife in Ljubljana ends rather early, especially along the river, but there are still bars that stay open late and clubs were you can dance until dawn, and perhaps the best place to stumble across something interesting is the legendary Metelkova. Be aware it's a grungy kind of place and not for all tastes, but also that there's consideable variety to found within the various clubs there, from death metal to electropop, gay caberet to art noise. You can read "the rules" of the place here.

Channel Zero – Monday night is Dub Lab, this week with All One Love # Party Gathering. Friday’s there music from the Handy Jandy and Spejs collectives, with a list of DJs playing trap, beats, bass, breakbeat and jungle.

Gala Hala – Friday there’s Wave riders: Electro riders, with DJs Torulsson, Kobayashii and Skinar. The week then comes to a climax with a Saturday all-nighter, SNIF presents: Anklklan X 50 Franks X WNDE, with what seems to be both live acts and DJs presenting: trap, bass and grime.

Klub Gromka – Friday night there’s Holomondo playing indie post-disco.

Klub Cirkus – Two events at this regular party club, with Friday seeing an all-nighter of DJs headlined by an appearance from Mari Ferrari. On Saturday there’s R’n’B with DJ Rea, with the night ending at 05:00, still some time before sunrise.

Klub K4 – The klub 4 kool kids also has two nights this week. Friday there’s Just Us w. Francesco Del Garda, supported by Dipsas, Limc, Simm and Marin. Then Saturday you can step back in time to an era before smartphones with K4 Techno Oldies Goldies, with DJ’s play techno and house.

Koncertna Dvorana Rog – The alternative to Metelkova at one end of Trubarjeva has IIIachine City on Friday, with DJs Alfredo Mazzilli, Gesta, Lunatik and Herman K vs RSN playing techno.

Orto Bar – Thursday there’s the post-Bryan Adams Concert Ultimate Pop Rock Party, a free to enter event that will be playing music aimed at fans of Bryan Adams, who's playing Stozice 

Harm reduction and drug testing

Drogart is an organization that aims to minimise harm on the party scene, and offers drug-testing services and reports on their webpage. It’s in Slovene, but you can Google translate it or work things out yourself. One thing they recently warned of were pink Pharaoh pills with around twice the normal MDMA content (measured at 261 mg). See pictures and learn more here, but do remember that all the usual drugs remain illegal in Slovenia, while our in-depth profile of the group is here. We've also heard increasing reports - albeit anecdotal - of women's drinks being spiked in the city, so take care and let friends know where you're going.

Things to do with children in Ljubljana

You can find our Top 12 list of things to do with kids in Ljubljana here. If want to read more about the philosophy behind the wonderful House of Experiments look here, while our trip to the Museum of Illusions is documented here, and there’s always riverside walks, ice cream and pizza.

Photo: JL Flanner

Facts about Ljubljana Castle

The city’s main tourist attraction is the Castle, and you’ll enjoy your visit a lot more if you know what you’re looking at, so take a look at our 25 Things to Know about Ljubljana Castle and learn, among other things, what these people are standing around and how it’s linked to Predjama Castle.

Photo: JL Flanner

LGBT+ Ljubljana

If you want to learn more about Ljubljana Pride, then take a look at our interview with its president here. If you're looking for more general links on "gay Slovenia", including a history of the scene and various projects, then you can find that here. We recently also published an interview with the LGBT activist and writer Suzana Tratnik, talking about - among other things - the occupation of Metelkova.

Klub Monokel – This lesbian bar in Metelkova is open every Friday night, and is also hosting some of the Grounded festival events..

Klub Tiffany – The gay bar next door to Monokel is also open every Friday, and every Monday until June 2019 there's tango at 18:00. Special this week are events for Grounded and the LGBT Film Festival – including Wednesday, 20:00, a screening of Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution?, while on Tuesday evening there’ll be something for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Pritličje – This is the closest Ljubljana comes to a "gay bar" so it's a good thing this LGBT-friendly cafe / bar / events space is such a good one, and open from morning to night. This Thursday there’s an event related to the Grounded festival, Vzhodno od queera ali Kjer ga najdeš | Grindr.

Museums and galleries in Ljubljana

Most public galleries and museums are closed on Mondays, although not the National Museum.

Plečnik's desk. Photo: JL Flanner

Plečnik’s House is worth a visit if you want to learn more about the architect who gave Ljubljana much of its character. Read about our guided tour here.

Cankerjev dom – Running until the end of February 2019 is an exhibition titled Ivan Cankar and Europe: Between Shakespeare and Kafka. This is “An examination of Cankar’s art through an analysis of influences and interpretations, and juxtaposition with contemporary European writers. The visually elaborate architectural and graphic layout, supported by audio-visual media, installation art and diverse visual highlights, offers a vivid account of Cankar’s excellence, his comprehensively exquisite aesthetic and artistic vision.”

City Museum – The Museum in French Revolution Square has an exhibition on the writer Ivan Cankar that’s on until the end of February 2019, with pictures, books and manuscripts, all presented in Slovene and English. It also has a very interesting permanent exhibition on the history of Ljubljana, from prehistoric times to the present day, with many artefacts, models and so on that bring the story alive.You can read about my recent visit here. Until March 2019 there's a show highlighting the work Elza Kastl Obereigner (1884-1973), a pioneer Slovenian sculptress, with an example of her work shown below.

Photo: M Paternoster

The Faces of Ljubljana in the City Museum. Photo: JL Flanner

Galerija Vžigalica – Saša Spačal has a show here until January 6, 2019 called Earthlink, “working at the intersection of intermedia art, exploration of living systems and audio frequencies, links Earth to the post-human present, that includes both a seed of the future as well as a shadow of the past.” A promotional image is what's shown below.

Simbiom – ekonomija simbioze, 2016 © Dejan HabichtArhiv Moderne galerije

City Art Gallery – Drago Tršar recently had a show at the main Moderna looking at his monumental works, and now this smaller gallery in the Old Town, not far from Town Hall, is showing some the sculpture’s erotic works, on until January 20, 2019. It’s being promoted with the following example.

Photo: City Gallery

International Centre of Graphic Arts – Running from Friday until March 3 2019 there will be a show of posters from Milton Glaser, with the poster for the show shown below.

Ljubljana Exhibition & Convention Centre – Just outside the centre of town, at Dunajska cesta 18, you can see a lot of plasticized bodies at the Body Worlds Vital show, running from October 20 until January 20 2019.

Photo: Body Works Vital

MAO – The Museum of Architecture and Design is showcasing Slovenian designers in a show called Made in Slovenia, lasting until the end of 2018: “The selling exhibition aims to present good practices of Slovenian designers and companies in the creative sector.” The same venue has an exhibition based on Slovenia’s Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, called “Living with Water”, and on until November 25.

Sam, 1966, fotografija na srebroželatinskem papirju. ©Stojan Kerbler

Moderna galerija – The main branch of this gallery, to be found near the entrance to Tivoli Park, has a good collection of modern art, as well a nice café in the basement, and it's latest exhibition focuses on the photographer Stojan Kerbler, which runs until January 13, 2019, and shows rural live in Slovenia for the recent past.

Museum of Contemporary History – The museum in Tivoli Park has two new shows. One is called Museum's (R)evolution 1948-2018, marking the place's 70th anniversary with an exhibition tracing its evolution through artefacts, photographs and personal stories and running until January 6 2019 (details here). There's also In Search of Freedom: 1968-2018, looking at the 1968 student protests.

National Gallery – The country’s main gallery has “the best” of what’s on offer from the Middle Ages to non-contemporary modern visual arts, and is in a great location for exploring other areas, just by Tivoli Park and opposite the main branch of the Moderna galerija. Running until February 10 2019 is a show called Ivana Kobilca (1861-1926): But Of Course, Painting Is Something Beautiful!, featuring works like the one below. You can read about our visit to the room containing scared art from the Middle Ages here, and see a picture from our trip after the two girls.

JL Flanner

National Museum of Slovenia – There’s plenty to see in the permanent collection here, from Roman times, Egypt and more, with the big draw this season being the exhibition of over 140 items of gold from Ming Dyntasy China, as reported here, and with an example below.

Photo: Wang Wei Chang

Meanwhile, the museum's Metelkova branch, located between one branch of the Moderna galerija and the Ethnographic Museum has some rooms on Church art, furniture and weapons, with the latter including more guns than you'll see anywhere else in town, and quite a thrill if coming from a nation where such objects are not household objects.

Slovene Ethnographic Museum – The museum currently has a temporary show on Bees and Beekeeping, as well two permanent exhibitions. One of these is called Between Nature and Culture, and has a great collection of objects from Slovenia and around the world, well worth the trip up to the third floor to see it (as recounted here). This place is located near the newer branch of the Moderna galerija and Metelkova.

Photo: JL Flanner

Union Experience – The Ljubljana-based brewer has a museum showing the history of the company, with the ticket also including access to part of the factory and a few samples of the product. You can read about our visit here.

It's not a formal museum, but if you're interested in "Yugo-stalgia" then you'll enjoy a trip to Verba, a small, privately run space that's crammed with objects and pop culture items from the era, and is conveniently located at the start of one of the short walks to the castle. It's also a great place to take pictures, if you leave a donation, and you can read more about it here.

Verba. Photo: JL Flanner

Alternative Ljubljana isn't a museum or gallery, as such, but instead turns the city streets into a museum and gallery. Learn more about their tours of street art, history and LGBT Ljubljana here.

Photo: Alternative Ljubljana

Live music in Ljubljana

Arena Stožice will be hosting Mr Adams on Thursday, November 22

Channel Zero – Wednesday night there’s a night of live music with Maraton trojk: Lynch & Rib & Sergio Lounge.

Cankerjev dom – Saz'iso are playing Monday (19^th) at 20:00. Here’s what Ry Cooder said about the album they’re promoting. “Why not give yourself a break from the unending cavalcade of modern high-speed insanity, and rest up with this album of deep soul from Southern Albania?”. Saturday and Sunday there are shows marking 30 Years of the Prifarski Muzikanti Band.

Klub Gromka – Saturday there’s a night with the name Ritval IV: Grrrrinding Insanity, with live grindcore and death metal from Rotten Cold, Dickless Tracy and Glista.

Kino Šiška – Tuesday there’s a show from Anna Calvi, while on Thursday you can enjoy pop from Tsar B and Zagami Jericho.

Ljubljana Castle – Friday is music night at the castle, and this week sees a show by the E. J. Strickland Quintet.

Orto Bar – Friday night there’s the Pre-Kitzbühel party, with a live show from Lumberjack. Saturday you can then see a Pearl Jam tribute band called Pearl Jam Project.

Opera, theatre and dance in Ljubljana

There’s an international improv festival, held in English, going on this week, with the name Naked Stage (Goli odor). Most the shows will be in Elektro Ljubljana, not far from Metelkova, with more details here.

Kino Šiška – A short bus ride or taxi from the centre, this venue is hosting events that are part of the dance-based CoFestival, November 23 to 29, with the official website here and the programme here (Slovene, but easily translated by a machine). Among the delights, Lucinda Childs: Zgodnja dela (Early Works 1963 – 1978).

Gledališče IGLU - IGLU Theatre – Saturday night this group is usually putting on an English improv show somewhere in town, but it’s generally promoted after this is written, so check the Facebook before putting on your shoes.

Klub Gromka – Thursday evening a side project from Image Snatchers returns to the stage, Matilda & Her Buns.

Pocket Teater Studio – Wednesday there’s a theatrical production called Človek, ki je prodal svet. Thursday you can then enjoy Mascara Quartet: Fado and Tango at the Pocket. Note this is a small place and tickets should be bought in advance.

SNG Opera and Ballet – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday you can enjoy dance, Moški z nožem with Kompozicija. Then Friday there’s Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann.

 Other things to do in Ljubljana...

From November 2 to 30 there’s the Gourmet Ljubljana Festival, with a full programme of culinary events, as detailed here.

If you'd like to spend an evening painting with others, then take a look at Design with Wine, which organises painting parties on Trubarjeva cesta,

Breg Embankment, just opposite the Old Town and by the river, has a small flea market open every Sunday morning. Learn more about it here.

If you can't make it to Breg on Sunday morning, but still want to see some antiques, then check out the wonderful Antika Carniola, as discussed here. The man behind it, Jaka Prijatelj, has a fine eye for life on this street, as you can see at the top of this page, with more on his Facebook account.

Photo: JL Flanner

If you’re in town and want to go jogging or walking in nature, why not take another look at the Castle, with a brief guide to the trails here. If you want something bigger, head to Tivoli Park.

And if you're bored with the Old Town, why not take a walk, cycle or boat ride to nearby Špica and enjoy the riverside life. Learn more about that here.

visitljubjana.si

maxpixel.net, public domain

Want to stretch and breath? Then check out our list of drop-in yoga classes for tourists, visitors and the uncommitted. If you're heading to the coast, check out our interview with a yoga teacher who offers breakfast sessions there, while if you're staying in town (or nearby) and want to try some "family yoga" then you can learn more about that here and maybe get your kids to calm down a moment or two.

There are some golf courses near Ljubljana, but even ones further away are not far, as seen in our list of all the golf courses in Slovenia.

Photo: maxpixel.net, public domain

Daytrips from Ljubljana

Most of Slovenia is only a few hours from Ljubljana, and you can easily visit Lake Bled, Lipica Stud Farm, Postojna Cave, Predjama Castle, the coast and other locations, while if you'd like to take a photo of from that bench in Bled, then you can learn how to get there here. If you’re looking for something more ambitious, then check out our recent guide to the 17 members of the Association of Historical Towns of Slovenia

Jackie Chan fighting in Predjama Castle

Finally...

You can see all our stories tagged Ljubljana here, while you can see more photos like the one below here.

© Jaka Prijatelj

STA, 16 November 2018 - Slovenian voters will flock to the polls on Sunday to cast their vote in local elections in 212 municipalities after month-long campaigning that saw some low points and bizarre publicity stunts.

A total of 688 candidates are running for mayors and 22,313 candidates for 3,400 local council seats, while some larger municipalities will also hold elections to borough or village councils.

As the trends suggest, incumbents and independents are likely to be the biggest election winners, even in some of the largest cities. Moreover, 36 mayoral candidates stand uncontested.

Mayors have long come to realise that voters appreciate most what they see, so they tend to time new construction and renovation projects for the ribbon-cutting to coincide with the campaign.

Indeed, a survey by the NGO Transparency International showed that local budgets peak with investments in election years; this year such spike is roughly EUR 420m or the equivalent of almost 1% of GDP.

Easy win in Ljubljana, harder fight in Maribor

In the eleven urban municipalities 87 contenders are running for mayors, with several of the incumbents projected to be re-elected, including Zoran Janković, who is eyeing his fourth term in Ljubljana.

Judging by the number of candidates and the few polls available, the fiercest battle will be fought in Maribor, where the incumbent mayor Andrej Fištravec is projected to be voted out.

The favourite for the first run is Franc Kangler, the former mayor who was forced out of office amid mass protests in 2012, but he is projected to be defeated by a newcomer, businessman Saša Arsenovič, in the run-off on 2 December.

Slovenia's second city saw aggressive smear campaigns on social media and an explicit death threat to one of the 18 candidates. Moreover, one of the contenders is running from prison.

Maribor and dead cats awaiting the incumbent in one of the smaller municipalities aside, perhaps the lowest point in the campaign was the interference in the village of Komen which cost Cohesion Minister Marko Bandelli his job after he threatened to cut off the municipality if his favourite was not elected.

Meanwhile, the campaign in Ljubljana was civilised, focusing on the battle between Janković and his long-term adversary in the city council, Anže Logar from the Democratic Party (SDS).

The incumbent in the port city of Koper, Boris Popovič, who has reportedly already organised a big party to celebrate a fifth term, tested the patience of voters with ostentatious early Christmas decoration that cost the city half a million euro.

The incumbents are also projected to be re-elected in Celje, Novo Mesto and Murska Sobota, while Kranj in the north-west will definitely get a new mayor because the incumbent is not standing.

The front-runner in Kranj is Matjaž Rakovec, the former boss of insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav, but polls indicate that a run-off on 2 December is likely.

A second run will not be needed in Murska Sobota, the north-easternmost urban centre, and in 59 more municipalities where only two candidates are standing.

Agitated in some of the municipalities and lacklustre elsewhere, the campaign did not venture beyond local issues and the results are likely to be a poor barometer of the political climate in the nation.

Very few female candidates on ballots

Aside the fact that scandals and allegations of corruption matter less than the candidates' ostensible efficiency, one of the things that is typical country-wide is the under-representation of women.

Only about one out of six mayoral candidates running is a woman, and there are none in Ljubljana. Out of the 212 mayors serving now only 16 are women and their number is likely to fall further.

More than 1.7 million voters are eligible to vote in Sunday's election. No projections about the turnout are available, but even as the trend has been negative, data from electoral commissions in urban municipalities show that more people turned out for early voting this year than four years ago.

Voters in municipalities populated by members of the Italian and Hungarian ethnic minorities and Roma will also be able to cast ballots for representatives of their communities in local councils.

There are 60 candidates running for the posts secured for the ethnic councillors; 2,734 voters are eligible to vote for Italian councillors, 5,651 for Hungarian councillors and 3,070 for Roma councillors.

Voting from 07:00 to 19:00, Sunday

All campaigning will have to stop at midnight tonight as election blackout sets it, to be in force until the polls close on Sunday at 7 PM. Around 3,200 polling stations will open at 7 AM.

No exit polls are planned, but the first incomplete results will be available from around 7:30 PM with the outcome more or less clear soon after.

Elections to local councils in larger communities are based on a system of proportional representation with the option of a preference vote, while smaller communities have a majority electoral system.

The elections and the ballot count will be observed by a delegation of five members of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

These are the seventh local elections in Slovenia since independence. The number of municipalities has expanded from 147 since the first elections in December 1994 to 212.

In the previous election, 158 mayors were elected in the first round and the remaining 54 in the run-off.

All out local elections coverage is here

STA, 16 November 2018 - The Ski Jumping World Cup season will start this weekend in Poland's Wisla without Slovenia's best jumper Peter Prevc, who needs additional training following his recovery from two ankle surgeries. Timi Zajc, a 18-year-old talent who stood out during the summer, is now the main hope of the Slovenian team, which has a new headcoach.

Prevc, who dominated the 2016 World Cup like no other before him, went through a slump in the last two seasons, but was still Slovenia's best jumper last year in 15th place overall.

Ankle issues cost him the entire preparation period for the new season and Prevc was only able to make his first jumps at the end of October.

Asked when he expects to return to the circuit, Prevc, whose ankle is still not at 100 percent, explained "the predictions are changing fast currently".

"Somewhere between Kuusamo (24 November) and Engelberg (15 December)... The 4-Hill tournament (31 December) is what I consider may last train for the season. I think I should have enough jumps and confidence by then.

"But my goal is not 28th or 32nd place. When my jumps allow me to be among the top 15, I will return without reservations," the 26-year-old has told the STA.

Meanwhile, the team's modest results in the last season ended a seven-year period under headcoach Goran Janus, who led Slovenian jumpers to a spectacular 46 World Cup victories.

Janus has been succeeded by Gorazd Bertoncelj, who has made some changes in the preparation period, for instance letting as many as 17 jumpers compete during the summer cup.

The only one to stand out among the Slovenians was Zajc, who made his World Cup debut in the last season, when his top result was a 12th place.

The remaining jumpers to start the season in Wisla are veteran Jernej Damjan along with Anže Semenič, Anže Lanišek, Žak Mogel, Bor Pavlovčič and Tomaž Naglič.

Bertoncelj has been very open about his goals this season: "We want one jumper among the top 6 in the final overall rankings, another one among the top 15, while we also wish to have eight podium finishes during the season."

"Meanwhile, the biggest goal is a medal at the World Championship in Seefeld and of course a podium finish at the season final at home in Planica," he announced.

The artists quarter that’s built up round Metelkova, including the Ministry of Culture and branches of the Modern Gallery and National Museum, as well as the Ethnographic Museum, has another repurposed building not far away, the Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana.

It’s here, from Tuesday November 20 until Sunday 25, that you’ll be able to enjoy a lot of the 14^th Naked Stage / Goli oder, an international festival of improvisational theatre, with some performances also occurring in Metelkova’s Menza pri Koritu, as well as in Kranj. The theme of this year’s festival is “connection”, and this will be explored in nine performances by artists from Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany and Slovenia.

Photo: Gregor Gobec

Photo: Gregor Gobec

Meet the People: Vid Sodnik, Improv Artist

Photo: Maruša Rems

Photo: Maruša Rems

All of the performances will be in English, and while there’s a simple schedule at the end of this post it’s far better to visit this page, which has full details of every performance.

This year’s festival is a part of a broader European project, Our Lives, and is being produced by Kolektiv Narobov, Zavod Federacija and Družina umetnosti Narobov, in coproduction with Zavod Bunker, KUD Kiks and Društvo Impro, while the artistic director of the festival is Maja Dekleva Lapajne.

The festival’s English website is here, and if you’re in town and would like some more of what’s going on in Ljubljana then check out our latest What’s on…. guide here.

NAKED STAGE 2018

14th International Festival of Improvisational Theatre

PERFORMANCES:
Wednesday, November 21, Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana

at 8pm: I Am an Envelope

An opening show of the festival and the first bite of it

Thursday, November 22, Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana

at 7pm: Childhood in Flashbacks

Transformation of different childhoods of generations and places to stage performance

at 9pm: Your 15 Minutes of Fame

Courageous and playful improvisation with members of the audience

Friday, November 23, Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana

at 7pm: Here You See

Traveling experience to places and memories that have shaped the lives of the performers

at 9pm: Chaka Chaka

Connections of body movements and musicality performance

Menza pri Koritu, AKC Metelkova, Ljubljana
at 11.30pm: Puppets and Cigarettes

A midnight puppet-impro dessert

Saturday, November 24, Layerjeva hiša Kranj

at 7pm: Sincerely Yours

A lively attack on feelings of love and violence

at 9pm: Carniola Song Contest

A frisky improve song night

Sunday, November 25, Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana

at 8pm: Last Wish

A bittersweet closing performance of the festival

WORKSHOPS DURING THE FESTIVAL:

Tuesday, November 20 from 3pm till 7pm

Marie Wellmann: Producing Impro

Wednesday, November 21 from 3pm till 7pm

Michaela Puchalková: Applied Impro Helps

Thursday, November 22, and Friday, November 23, from 2pm till 5pm

Matthieu Loos: Beyond Skin

Friday, November 23 from 10am till 2pm

Lee White: Game Show odrski formati Formats

Saturday, November 24 from 1pm till 5pm

Ladislav Karda: Free Form Impro

Saturday, November 24 from 1.30pm till 5.30pm

Christoph Jungmann: Our Lives – Our Inspiration

Saturday, November 24 and Sunday, November 25 from 2pm to 5pm

Alenka Marinič and Justin Durel: Clown for Improvisers

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, November 16, 2018.

Mladina: Government. Did Not Prepare for NLB Sale

STA, 16 November 2018 - The weekly Mladina is critical of the government for what it sees as a blunder in the sale of the bank NLB. The government planned to preserve control over the bank through state-owned companies, but then the securities market watchdog said it could not be done. The government obviously walked into this without having prepared properly.

Mladina editor-in-chief Gregor Repovž even goes as far as to compare the state to an adult movie actress who once said that she was "the sort of girl who doesn't research in advance. I just go".

Looking back at how the sale unfolded, Repovž says that the sale prospectus presentation attracted representatives of pension and investment funds directly or indirectly controlled by the state.

The concept of controlling companies through state-controlled firms is well-established abroad, the weekly notes.

The combined share of the state and its companies usually amounts to about 40%, however the rest of the stock is so dispersed that the share suffices to control the company.

"We assumed that the government was planning something like this and it seemed prudent," Repovž says in the editorial. "Finally somebody knew what they were doing."

But then the Securities Market Agency issued a legal opinion saying that legislation regulating privatisation and investment funds made it impossible for state-related institutions to buy NLB stock.

"Because we were watching the matter closely, we learnt that this was a surprise for Slovenian Sovereign Holding, as well as the government. How is that even possible!"

Unofficial statements indicated that the government had no clue about the stock ownership in the bank. But intending to keep 25% and one share, the state should be aware of every share, the weekly says.

"We heard later that state-owned and para-state funds will be able to buy shares on the stock exchange. But such light-heartedness demands the dismissal of the heads of the Sovereign Holding and the finance minister."

Demokracija: NLB Sale to be Welcomed

Ljubljana, 15 November - The right-wing weekly Demokracija welcomes in its latest commentary the sale of the NLB bank, saying that there will be no more "free lunches" for the "leftist comrades" who are used to being fed by taxpayer money.

The "comrades" are screaming that it was a heist and that Slovenian Sovereign Holding should have rejected the "shameful price" EUR 51.50 per share, editor-in-chief Jože Biščak says under the headline Colour of Money.

He adds that the mindset of socialists in Slovenia is vividly described by a statement by chemist and economist Peter Glavič, who complained that "once foreigners get hold of Slovenian banks, they will decide whom to give a loan and whom not."

While Glavič is afraid for Slovenia's economic and political sovereignty, Bičak asks the readers whether they had been able to come to a NLB office and ask not for a EUR 100,000 loan, but for a EUR 300,000 loan, as Glavič claims.

"Of course not. In the best case you would be escorted out of the office by a security guard," the commentary says, adding that big loans (usually without adequate collateral) were being given to the chosen ones who "used NLB as an ATM or for money laundering".

Biščak admits that the price is low, but says that it was determined by the market. "The culprits for the multi-million loss are known: Miro Cerar, Karl Erjavec and Dejan Židan, who had broken promises, procrastinated and feigned ignorance."

Taxpayers will continue to pay down NLB debt for years, but this is better than throwing new billions at the bank in a year or two, so that it would remain "ours".

Something is certain, this is the end of "comrade loans" at the expense of taxpayers. If the bank ends in trouble, the owners will have to recapitalise it on their own, and "NLB will need to learn how to drive on macadam", concludes the commentary.

STA, 16 November 2018 - Slovenians will head to the polls on Sunday to elect 212 mayors. Some of the mayors seeking re-election have been in office since their municipalities were incepted, others have not been unseated for nearly two decades. About three dozen sitting mayors will not face a rival at all.

Nine mayors have been in office since Slovenia's first local election in 1994. One more has served as mayor since 1997, when his predecessor was appointed cabinet minister.

Another four mayors have held their office since 1998, when the number of municipalities in the country went from 147 to 193, as a number of local communities split into smaller ones.

The number of municipalities has been gradually increasing through the years, from 60 in 1991 to 212 in 2011.

Most of the long-sitting mayors do not often make national news, but when they do, it is typically positive news, which goes some way towards explaining their staying power.

This goes especially for Franc Čebulj of Cerklje na Gorenjskem, one of the most prosperous communities in the country, located north of Ljubljana.

Not only does it rank highest among municipalities by average salary, data for 2017 also show that the municipality had not taken out any new loans.

At least in part, the community's success can be attributed to the fact that the biggest airport in the country is located there, alongside a number of companies dependent on air transport. Currently, several international logistics firms are building new hubs near Cerklje.

On the other hand, there is Celje, in the northeast, which used to bill itself as the most developed city in the country.

But since its hay day several towns have outpaced or caught up with Celje, which has become the main source of criticism levelled against its incumbent Mayor Bojan Šrot, who has been in office since 1998.

Several of his six rivals believe that Celje should do more to attract highly-trained workers. Nonetheless, Šrot is likely to be re-elected: a poll released by newspaper Večer on Wednesday even indicated that he will carry the vote already in the first round.

Despite waning performance, Šrot is a good example of another major cause of staying power.

Šrot used to helm the People's Party (SLS), a political grouping that although it has not made it into parliament since 2014 usually does rather well in local elections, especially in dozens of small rural municipalities. In fact, many of the long-serving mayors come from its ranks.

While many of the mayors who have been in office for two decades or more have changed parties during this time, most of the mayors who did not break party allegiances in fact come from the ranks of the SLS.

Local election races are usually quite intense and can even get dirty, but the situation is much quieter in more than 30 municipalities where incumbent mayors face no rivals.

In the nortwestern-most municipality of Kranjska Gora, for example, there are almost no indications election weekend is coming up. While some posters promoting council candidates have been posted along the Upper Sava Valley, there are virtually no posters of the incumbent Janez Hrovat, who faces no rival.

But interestingly, a great number of municipalities with only one mayoral candidate are in the northeast.

One of them is the tiny community of Razkrižje, whose incumbent Stanko Ivanušič has been in office since 1998 and, facing no rivals, will remain mayor a sixth term.

The reason why they are not faced with a rival is because of good cooperation with all political groups in their municipal councils, the mayors of Sevnica and Križevci pri Ljutomeru, Srečko Ocvirk and Branko Belec, recently told the national broadcaster TV Slovenija.

Nonetheless, Belec added that a real election race shows the candidate how much they are really worth, while another unrivalled incumbent mayor from the Pomurje region, Damijan Jaklin of Velika Polana, added that competition is welcome because it forces candidates to do better.

All our local elections coverage is here