Politics

03 Jul 2020, 11:56 AM

STA, 3 July 2020 - Moravče, a municipality some 30 km north-east of Ljubljana, is in a full lockdown as of Thursday. Its mayor, Milan Balažic, resorted to the strictest measures so as to stop the spreading of the new coronavirus, as three cases were confirmed there in the last week.

Given the number of inhabitants in Moravče, three cases means the situation is graver than in Ljubljana, the mayor said in explaining his decision to ban all public gatherings, including sports trainings, private parties and church masses.

He also restricted access to the town hall to staff only, banned serving of guests inside bars and restaurants, and made face masks mandatory in all closed public spaces.

"We had two cases in the first wave. We took immediate action, introduced a little bit stricter measures and stayed at this number throughout the epidemic," Balažic said.

The mayor said his decision was met with a mixed response among locals. "On the one hand they are not thrilled, because it means limiting their freedom and day-to-day life, and on the other it seems that most of them understand that it is necessary," he said.

Balažic believes that if a hotspot is detected in a municipality mayors are obligated to act. He himself acted based on the local government act and the Moravče municipality statute.

Government spokesman Jelko Kacin would not comment on the Moravče case at yesterday's press conference. He said that the government's latest moves were aimed at preventing the imported infections to spread so that mayors would not have to take any additional measures. "But if people are socialising there, we understand people's concern," he added.

Balažic previously served as ambassador to Australia in 2014 but was recalled due to his contacts with Nicholas Oman, an arms trader and convicted paedophile. He became mayor in 2018.

Since he took over, Moravče made headlines outside Slovenia as well because of a giant wooden sculpture resembling US President Donald Trump that was erected there and later torched.

The statue, standing almost eight metres tall and mimicking the Statue of Liberty, had originally been erected in Selo, a small village some 20 kilometres north of Ljubljana, but was relocated to Moravče due to unease that it was causing among the Selo locals and the media interest that came with it.

trump statue slea kickstarter  1.JPG

Photo: Kickstarter

Sixteen Covid-19 cases detected in 1,274 tests on Thursday

STA, 3 July 2020 - In what is in keeping with the slightly raised but mostly flat curve of new Covid-19 cases in Slovenia in the past week, 16 infections were confirmed as 1,274 people were tested on Thursday. One person was hospitalised, taking the total number in hospitals to 10. No patient required intensive care and there were no deaths.

The latest data, released by the government on Friday, thus take the total number of Covid-19 cases discovered so far with 104,201 tests to 1,649, while the death toll remains at 111. The current number of confirmed actively infected individuals is 136.

Following an increase in new cases in the past week, many of which were imported cases, the government decided on Thursday to remove Croatia, along with France and Czechia, from the green list of epidemiologically safe countries, effective on Saturday. They are to be yellow-listed, meaning most foreign citizens arriving to Slovenia from them need to go into quarantine.

The government also announced stricter controls on the Croatian border to make sure people are not arriving from red-listed Balkan countries, as well as a more effective regime for serving quarantine orders, which includes the option to already serve them on the border.

A tightening of protective measures was moreover announced at nursing homes and healthcare centres and at least two hospitals - the UKC Ljubljana, the country's biggest, and the Slovenj Gradec general hospital - issued a prohibition on visits of most hospitalised patients today.

03 Jul 2020, 10:31 AM

STA, 2 July 2020 - PM Janez Janša has sent a letter to State Prosecutor General Drago Šketa, saying the prosecution is neglecting its legal role in relation to the anti-government protests for failing to respond to inciting to violence. The letter in which he also says Šketa will be responsible if the violence escalates has been met with strong criticism.

Janša published the letter dated 19 June in full on Twitter today after the newspaper Dnevnik ran an article about it. Janša tweeted he had decided to publish the letter "because the unofficial Official Gazette of the deep state (globoka država), Dnevnik.si, published insinuations" about the letter.

In the letter, the prime minister says that "we have been witnessing stepping up of organised death threats" in recent months and that the prosecution was passively observing this despite the clear restrictions that the Constitution and the Penal Code impose on such behaviour. Janša says that in some cases the prosecution indirectly even encourages such behaviour.

"You will be directly responsible for any potential victims of the organised threats," Janša wrote Šketa, referring to slogans and banners reading "Death to Janšism".

He also says that members of different extremist organisations from neighbouring and other countries, which are known for the use of street violence and other types of violence, are taking part in the protests held on Fridays, calling for a violent bringing down of the existing constitutional order. "And the state prosecution is silent like a fish in the tank."

Janša notes that slogans such as Juden Raus or Death to Fascism have in the past led to the killings of first individuals and then to genocide and crimes against humanity.

The prime minister sees the events at the anti-government protests as "organised death threats to an entire democratic political bloc", and calls on Šketa to act before it is too late.

Šketa responded to the letter today by asserting that the prosecution was efficient and acting in line with the Constitution and law.

He said that he had been noticing a growing amount of intolerance and hostility in the public discourse for years. Noting that he never gave any guidelines or instructions to prosecutors, who must be fully independent in their work, Šketa said that reports on the work of the prosecution showed that prosecutors decided to act against inciting to violence or hostility only when they detect legally-set signs of a criminal act or offence.

According to Dnevnik, the State Prosecutorial Council discussed the letter on Monday and is expected to publicly respond to it next week.

A much stronger reaction meanwhile came from former State Prosecutor General Zvonko Fišer, who told Dnevnik that he had not witnessed such a move in his entire career as prosecutor, not even in Yugoslavia.

He finds this kind of pressure completely inappropriate and inadmissible.

Heavy criticism also came from the head of the opposition Social Democrats (SD), Tanja Fajon, who said the letter was "very inappropriate, presumptuous and unacceptable".

She sees it is yet another attack on independent institutions and a severe encroachment upon another branch of power, which is why the party plans to initiate an impeachment motion against the PM.

At least ten MPs can initiate the impeachment, so SD MPs alone could do it. Fajon said the party had not discussed the move with other opposition parties yet.

The Justice Ministry told Dnevnik that the law enforcement was in charge of passing judgements on individual actions and was completely independent and that the law enforcement must be allowed to do its job professionally. If it fails to do so, certain surveillance mechanisms are available.

This was echoed by Justice Minister Lilijana Kozlovič before today's government session. Asked whether she sees Janša's letter as a form of pressure on an independent branch of power, she said this was the PM's decision, which was why she would not comment.

She noted though that any kind of intolerance or hostility must be processed as part of a criminal or minor offence proceedings because too much of that was happening.

Asked to comment on the statements by the outgoing interior minister, Aleš Hojs, that the National Bureau of Investigation and the crime police were full of staff linked to the firmer Communist secret service UDBA and the Communist Party, Kozlovič said she had no such information.

The Office of President Borut Pahor, which also received a copy of the letter, said that the prosecution must be independent in its work.

Our stories on the protests in Slovenia

02 Jul 2020, 13:19 PM

STA, 1 July - Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek does not intend to step down following yesterday's house searches related to an investigation into alleged wrongdoing in the procurement of medical and personal protective equipment during the epidemic. He told the press today that he had Prime Minister Janez Janša's full support to carry on.

The Modern Centre Party (SMC) leader also said he was not indifferent to the probe, but had cooperated with the police investigators and had provided all the evidence. He expects them to do their work constructively and promptly.

The minister was not surprised by the investigation, saying it was a result of all the pressure, political manoeuvring and insinuations that has appeared in the public.

"I'm not going to apologise for the decisions I took during the epidemic to prevent the loss of lives, but will defend them everywhere and always."

Except for a tweet on Tuesday evening, this is Počivalšek's first statement after Tuesday's house searches. He denied reports he had been detained, saying he had merely been deprived of his liberty for the duration of the searches in line with standard procedure.

The minister insisted that the government had merely pursued the goal of securing enough equipment, which was vitally needed during the epidemic. Even though conditions were tough and a state of emergency reigned, all actions were legal and transparent, he said.

"We've been witnessing a persistent and political distorting of basic and objective data to an extent where our successful fight with the epidemic has been completely devalued before the Slovenian public," he said, arguing this might benefit some political groups but not the country.

Announcing full cooperation, Počivalšek said he took the investigation "seriously and above all with the awareness and understanding that the institutions in charge need to do their job".

The minister believes the agony around the procurement during the crisis will continue until all institutions present their findings. He added that presumption of innocence was a principle that seemed to be overlooked often in these times.

Počivalšek also said he had managed to talk with some SMC members after the police probe to establish there was even more determination now to move forward together.

He expressed regret Aleš Hojs resigned as interior minister because of the investigation, saying they had cooperated well in the government.

All our stories on the PPE scandal in Slovenia

02 Jul 2020, 11:08 AM

STA, 2 July 2020 - Out of 1,198 coronavirus tests conducted on Wednesday, 21 came back positive, the highest daily figure since 16 April when Slovenia recorded 36 new cases. Nine persons were in hospital, one more than the day before. None required intensive care, show latest government data.

There were no Covid-19 fatalities recorded yesterday. The national death toll thus remains at 111.

The total of estimated active cases is 122, according to the national Covid-19 tracker site data.

On Wednesday, five new cases were confirmed in Ljubljana, five in Ravne na Koroškem (N), four in Dravograd (N), and one each in seven other municipalities.

In the past week, Slovenia saw 87 new cases. A total of 140 infections were confirmed in June, whereas only 34 in May, show the Health Ministry data as reported by public broadcaster RTV Slovenija.

The government's chief Covid-19 advisor Bojana Beović told Radio Slovenija today that the bulk of new cases continue to be imported, although the virus is also spreading within the country, the source of which cannot be established.

"Those who bring the infection from abroad, generate additional cases here, in the family, working environments. It's a cause for great concern," she said.

Beović said that those who were getting ill with Covid-19 in the past few days "were mostly not members of high risk groups. However, recently a more severe case has emerged as well".

The virus has been spreading among the younger generations mostly - on Wednesday, six infections were confirmed among people aged 15-24, seven among those aged 25-34 and three among those aged 35-44.

However, Beović warned that the young could develop a more severe form of the disease as well, not to mention that they could pass the virus on to older relatives.

Eva Grilc of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) also expressed concern over the developments today.

The NIJZ has detected two hotspots so far; one each in the Štajerska region in the north-east and Koroška region in the north.

The Štajerska hotspot has been triggered by imported cases from Serbia, whereas the Koroška one is a result of imported infections from Bosnia-Herzegovina, reads a NIJZ press release.

Meanwhile, Mateja Logar of the UKC Ljubljana clinic for infectious diseases told RTV Slovenija that the situation was very serious for the virus had been spreading within the population and the cases were no longer merely imported.

"It is no longer possible to always know from whom the person contracted the virus," she said, adding that contact tracing had been thus made more difficult.

In recent days, an adult working at a kindergarten in Oplotnica near Maribor tested positive. The kindergarten has implemented all the required precaution measures and informed the parents of the developments, said the municipality.

The infected person as well as 18 children who were in contact with her have been quarantined.

According to a media report, another infection at kindergarten was confirmed in a student who was helping at a kindergarten in Ljubljana.

The student stayed at home as soon as it turned out she might be infected, while 21 children and two employees were sent into a two-week quarantine.

The total number of infections confirmed so far in Slovenia stands at 1,633, after one of the previous cases has been removed from the case count since further testing failed to confirm the infection.

Poll shows growing concern as Covid-19 count increases

STA, 1 July 2020 - A recent poll by Valicon shows a significant change in public opinion as the number of confirmed daily Covid-19 cases has increased again in Slovenia, with the share of concerned people increasing and reaching the level from the end of April.

While in mid-June the share of concerned respondents was 47%, at the end of June it was again at 67%, which is the highest share recorded since the end of April.

Valicon attributes the growing concern to concern about the family and personal health, which is again getting into focus.

Perhaps the most telling information is that "concern that the situation could last for a long time" has given way to concern for the economy, the pollster said on Wednesday.

What is even more drastic is the assessment of the developments, as 55% of the people polled said the things were turning for the worse, which compares to only 11% two weeks ago.

The current situation is normal or rather normal to less than a quarter of the 529 participants in the latest #Newnormality poll between 24 and 29 June, down from two-fifths from mid-June.

Some 35% said that the situation was "acceptable and bearable", up five percentage points, while the share of those who think that the circumstances are unpleasant was up by ten points to 34%.

There is also a shift in the perception of the government's anti-epidemic measures. The share of those who think they are too strict was down by 11 percentage points to 22%, the lowest since the end of March.

The share of respondents who think the measures are not strict enough was meanwhile up from 14% in mid-June to 32%, the highest share since the end of March.

All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia

 

02 Jul 2020, 11:03 AM

STA, 1 July 2020 - Slovenia's former Ambassador to Switzerland Marta Kos has told the newspaper Dnevnik that she resigned on Monday because of diverging views on how the embassy should be run and foreign policy led. She also confirmed that the resignation was linked to recent oversight by the Foreign Ministry of her management of the Embassy in Bern.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed for Dnevnik that a four-week extraordinary oversight of Kos's work had been conducted at the Embassy in Bern between late May and mid-June.

It was launched after the staff complained that the embassy was not run adequately. These allegations have persisted since she served as ambassador in Berlin, the ministry said.

The oversight report was given to Foreign Minister Anže Logar and to Kos. The ministry did not want to elaborate on the contents of the report, Dnevnik said.

Kos's resignation, sent out on Monday, took effect on Tuesday.

Kos, who is not a career diplomat, was appointed ambassador to Switzerland in September 2017 and her term would have expired in July 2021. Before Bern, she was ambassador to Germany.

01 Jul 2020, 13:38 PM

STA, 1 July 2020 - Representatives of police officers are very critical of Interior Minister Aleš Hojs for claiming that the police force was being run by the deep state as he resigned on Tuesday. They have dismissed the claims as inappropriate and insulting and called on the outgoing minister to apologise.

While accepting the resignation of Police Commissioner Anton Travner and resigning himself after an investigation had been launched into ventilator procurement, Hojs said that the police were serving the deep state.

Interior Minister, Police Commissioner Resign, Move Linked to Procurement Scandal

"It will be hard to convince me that this is not a political police force," said the minister, whose resignation letter also speaks of structures that are allegedly still linked to the Communist secret service UDBA and the Communist Party.

In its response, the Association of Criminal Police Officers called on Hojs yesterday to apologise for the uttered "insults and accusations" and "completely unproven constructs".

"As professionals, we are not interested in political developments and politicking, and we will not let ourselves be turned into a playground for political games," the association added.

Its president Slavko Koroš said that certain politicians had been attacking the police for a while, in particular criminal police and specific criminal police officers.

"The attacks, insults and accusations have gained new proportions with the statements by Minister Hojs as he listed the reasons for his resignation," he added.

According to Koroš, criminal police officers have never bothered dealing with the question who will be the interior minister and which party they will come from.

"The only wish is that we are able to investigate criminal acts lawfully and without political intrigue, regardless of the status of the suspects," he said in reference to Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek being temporarily detained yesterday.

The association also dismissed the claim about the structures linked to UDBA, saying that in 30 years of independent Slovenia, the police had been completely overhauled staff-wise.

The Police Trade Union (SPS), one of the two police trade unions, labelled on Wednesday Hojs's statements as inappropriate and insulting to all police employees.

"Police officers are not guided in their work by any obscure forces, but only out objectivity and search for material truth under the principles of the profession," it added.

Regardless of whether certain groups or individuals like it or not, police officers perform their duties without bias and fairly, and enjoy an exceptionally high reputation among citizens, the SPS added.

The Police Trade Union of Slovenia (PSS) already said yesterday that the statements were completely unfounded, and detrimental for all police employees. It expects that the outgoing minister will apologise.

This was echoed by the Association of Police Chiefs, which also noted that at the recent ceremony marking Police Day, Hojs had commended the work and sacrifice made by police officers, including criminal police.

The association added that it strongly condemned Hojs's statements and that it was deeply disappointed, asking the minister to apologise for the "unfounded allegations which are detrimental for all employees in the Slovenian police."

It said that the police had made much progress in recent years in professionalising employees, raising ethical standards and strengthening personal and organisational integrity.

Speaking of this are also public opinion polls, which suggest a high level of reputation. "Public opinion therefore does not confirm the subjective and, to a certain measure, insulting statements by the outgoing minister," the statement concludes.

30 Jun 2020, 18:49 PM

STA, 30 June 2020 - Opposition parties bar the SNS spoke on Tuesday of independent police work in the investigation into ventilator procurement and called on the government to take a cue from the resignation of Interior Minister Aleš Hojs. Coalition parties were mostly reserved, an exception being PM Janez Janša, who said it is time to end "selective justice".

Commenting on today's house searches conducted over suspected abuse of office in the March procurement of medical ventilators and the resulting resignation of Hojs and Police Commissioner Anton Travner, former PM Marjan Šarec of the opposition LMŠ said the "entire government is ripe for resignation".

"Attempts to conceal things with attacks on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the entire police force show that the independence of the prosecution authorities is a thorn in the side of those in power," tweeted Šarec, who feels an early election is the only way forward.

Tanja Fajon of the SocDems, the second largest opposition party, said Slovenia was dealing with a crime of epic proportions that seems to go all the way to the top of the government instead of focusing on the major challenges ahead.

Fajon, who suspects the government "failed to prevent the house searches", argued the conspiracy theories being peddled are merely an attempt to divert attention. The government has no political and moral clout left, she added, calling on Janša to resign.

Luka Mesec of the Left said Hojs and Travner resigned "over regret they didn't manage to discipline the police to a point where there would be no more criminal police following their own conscience and professional ethics".

Mesec, who expects PM Janez Janša will now try to appoint somebody "who will do a better party job in the police force", added the government has already turned to its known strategy - "personal discreditation and attacks on criminal police officers, which is unheard off". The Left will protect the independence of the police and wants an early election, he said.

Alenka Bratušek of SAB said Hojs's resignation showed he "had a somewhat peculiar notion" about how the police force operated. While saying she was content the police were doing their job and not shying away from investigating government officials, Bratušek argued that such probes were too often only a show for the public.

She does feel that the time is ripe for Janša "to face the mirror" as well and assume responsibility for the opaque procurement of PPE during the crisis. Bratušek spoke of the possibility of an no-confidence motion in the entire government, mentioning DeSUS as a coalition party that could be won over to secure the needed absolute majority.

The only opposition party leader to echo Hojs's reasoning that the police's operation was politically motivated was Zmago Jelinčič of the National Party (SNS).

"Certain leading staff in the police force are politically appointed and undermine the police's professional work," he said, expressing surprise over Hojs's resignation and arguing he had expected "Hojs would start cleaning up at the police force".

Meanwhile, the coalition parties were mostly reserved in their reactions today so far, with the ruling Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi) initially refusing to comment.

SDS head and PM Janša responded later with a letter entitled Selective Justice, in which he said he would not comment on an ongoing procedure, but wanted to comment on the "double standards in the priority choices of the NBI, the prosecution, and the judiciary".

Janša wrote that it is "political sympathies and media pressure" that have been governing the choices of all three for some time as opposed to the scale of the crimes.

He said that no epilogue had been seen for other "hundreds of millions of euros" worth of crimes in the healthcare system, no house searches conducted related to a suspected EUR 1bn in money laundering for Iran at NLB bank, and no criminal complaints filed against the owners of several media outlets despite ample evidence of "harmful contracts and annexes through which these factories of rotten news are attached to taxpayers' money".

Janša argued that selective justice and the "general politicisation of a part of the repressive apparatus prevents a normal functioning of parliamentary democracy in the country".

"It is therefore our duty and it is high time that we secure a consistent honouring of the Constitution and laws and equal standards for everybody," Janša concludes.

Meanwhile, the Modern Centre Party (SMC), whose head and Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek is also being investigated, has not yet commented, while DeSUS head Aleksandra Pivec said she expected the investigation would be conducted in a fair and objective manner.

She urged the calming of political passions and also did not comment on Hojs's views. Asked how the developments will impact the coalition, she said things were still underway. "Once more will be known, I expect the coalition partners to also sit down, get familiar with the facts and then adopt decisions," she said.

All our stories on the PPE scandal can be found here

30 Jun 2020, 15:47 PM

STA, 30 June 2020 - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs told the press on Tuesday that he had tendered his resignation to PM Janez Janša and that Janša accepted it. Hojs, who suggested the investigation into ventilator procurement showed the police were serving the deep state, added he had accepted the resignation of Police Commissioner Anton Travner before that.

Hojs linked the resignation to the house searches conducted today by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at several locations, including with Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek. Media have reported police suspect abuse of office in the March procurement of medical ventilators.

Hojs said he had been informed that the sting operation was under way by Deputy Police Commissioner Jože Senica at around 8am this morning. An hour later he was informed that Počivalšek, a protected person, had been deprived of his liberty for the duration of the house search.

Hojs believes that today's developments are politically motivated, that the procedures are political, which is why he accepts "political responsibility, as this responsibility rests with the minister". Thus he offered his resignation to the prime minister, who has already accepted it.

"As a minister I never interfered in the work of the police in the sense of whom and why to investigate. My position was always that order needs to be introduced for everybody in this country, meaning that all crimes need to be investigated," Hojs said, while defending his decision to have internal oversight conducted at the NBI.

He added that it was impossible to ignore that there were scores of shelved procedures at the prosecution and at courts and that he "cannot accept that the directing of the police is not done so much by the police commissioner or anybody else who should be doing it, meaning the entire structure within the police".

Instead, argued Hojs, the police force is directed "by the weekly Mladina, by prosecutors who have proven in the past to mostly lead procedure against politically inappropriate persons - meaning against the right".

According to Hojs, they have but one goal - "to discredit the ministers, the prime minster and achieve the much desired collapse of this coalition and preservation of all privileges that they have been afforded all these years by the centre-left coalition, the SocDems always being a part of it".

"It will be hard to convince me that this is not a political police force, change my view that the police are serving the deep state and not the citizens," said Hojs, whose resignation letter speaks of structures that are allegedly still linked to the Communist secret service UDBA and the Communist Party.

Hojs wrote that "despite that change at the top of the police force and staffing changes carried out so far by the police commissioner, I assess that the UDBA-Party-based structure of the decisive segment of the police force, in concert with the prosecution and judiciary of the same origin, is still so deeply anchored in the system as to prevent me from effectively depoliticising and changing the police force".

Security expert Miroslav Žaberl expressed concern over this statement, saying it suggested that the changes made to the police force by Hojs were political and not based on professional criteria.

The reasons Hojs gave for his resignation show he believes that the force must be rearranged in a way to make it "ours". But the police are in the service of the people and not of political parties, Žaberl said.

The police are independent in their work and no politician can affect police procedure, said Žaberl, adding that the interior minister could not be informed in advance of specific police activities.

The Police Trade Union of Slovenia (PSS) also reacted to Hojs's claims, calling them "unfounded and completely without ground". Since they are damaging to all police officers, the PSS expects an apology from the outgoing minister, the union said.

Responding to the Hojs's and Travner's resignations, Janša thanked them in a tweet for professional and dedicated work they had done in providing safety and preserving health, adding that not everybody at the Interior Ministry "had the same goal".

Hojs, who will continue running the ministry until parliament is officially notified of his resignation, was one of the more exposed ministers after the Janša government took over in March.

He was a proponent of strict lockdown restrictions, who openly criticised the public's behaviour, made headlines in the face of prompt replacements at the top of key positions in the police force, as well as with calls that police take tougher action against the protesters who have been protesting against the government each Friday for over months.

Another story involving Hojs was the Interior Ministry's decision to override a ban on a concert by Croatian nationalist singer Marko Perković Thompson. This earned him an ouster motion by the opposition, which will not be processed now.

The 58-year-old started his political career as a member of Christian democratic parties, last of New Slovenia (NSi), which expelled him in 2016 amid claims he was hurting the party's reputation. Hojs, who served as defence minister in the 2012/13 Janša government, ran on the ticket of Janša's Democrats (SDS) in 2018. He was the director of the Nova24TV media outlet before becoming minister in March.

30 Jun 2020, 15:44 PM

STA, 30 June 2020 - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is reportedly conducting house searches at 11 locations today over suspected abuse of office in the March procurement of medical ventilators. According to the news portal nezenzurirano.si, police have also visited the Economy Ministry and are investigating the EUR 8.8 million deal with Geneplanet.

The suspects reportedly include Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and his senior aide Andreja Potočnik who was involved operationally in talks with the suppliers of medical and protective equipment.

Police are said to have also visited the Commodity Reserves Agency, which organised the procurement and one of whose senior employees, Ivan Gale, went public in April to speak about heavy political meddling. Gale highlighted Počivalšek and the favouring of Geneplanet, a Slovenian intermediary, in the purchasing of ventilators.

The suspects are reportedly suspected of abuse of office that resulted in grave damage to public finances, an offence that carries a prison sentence of one to eight years.

The criminal instigation, led by the specialised state prosecution, was launched two months ago, after a TV Slovenija Tarča current affairs show that featured Gale and an audio recording of Minister Počivalšek demanding that the Commodity Reserves Agency execute an advance payment to Geneplanet.

The Commodity Reserves Agency wrote that NBI officers visited the agency today and conducted an interview with its former head Anton Zakrajšek and the signatory of the contract with Geneplanet, Alojz Černe.

"The agency has consistently been cooperating constructively with all bodies investigating its past deals," the press release says.

The investigation prompted today the resignation of both Police Commissioner Anton Travner and Interior Minister Aleš Hojs. The latter suggested the operation showed the police were serving the deep state and not the citizens.

While Počivalšek, who is the head of the junior coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), survived a no-confidence motion in parliament over opaque PPE and ventilator purchases earlier this month, a criminal complaint was also filed against him last week by the editorial board of the weekly Mladina.

The 220 Siriusmed R30 ventilators ordered through Geneplanet, a deal which Gale said had been described by Počivalšek at a meeting as a deal for the senior coalition Democrats (SDS), have been one of the central coronavirus procurement stories.

Critics have warned that the ventilators provided by Geneplanet had been picked even though an expert evaluation group had expressed reservations about them and put them at the very bottom of a list of ventilators deemed appropriate.

While critics also claimed they were outdated, pricey, and mostly delivered without essential additional equipment, the government has defended the purchase by pointing to the circumstances on markets and scarce access to ventilators in what had been the peak of the coronavirus crisis in mid-March.

The contract with Geneplanet was changed after the story broke and as the epidemiological situation improved, so the company ended up delivering 110 ventilators while also buying 20 back. According to the business newspaper Finance, the final price tag was EUR 3.6 million.

30 Jun 2020, 06:30 AM

STA, 29 June 2020 - The government lowered the number of persons allowed in public gatherings from 500 to 50 in a correspondence session on Monday. The only exception will be official events licensed by the National Institute of Public Health. The government also indicated stricter oversight of quarantine orders.

 Government spokesperson Jelko Kacin told the press before the government session today that several coronavirus hotspots had emerged recently as a result of parties and other gatherings where social distancing rules had not been observed.

Despite lowering the cap of total attendees, the government will allow the possibility of gatherings of up to 500 people in cases where organisers are able to guarantee social distance and get the go-ahead from NIJZ, like events with seating order and stewardship services. Kacin said that this exception would apply to any rallies.

He was reserved in his answers about parties, but said that "the analysis of the patient's age clearly shows where they socialised. The young socialised at private parties which were also attended by guests from abroad."

The commercial broadcaster POP TV meanwhile reported of a lively night life in Ljubljana. While night clubs remain closed, bars are open late into the night, hosting large numbers of patrons.

When asked what the new restriction would mean for weddings, Kacin said the decision was in the hands of couples. They should decide whether the event can be carried out in line with the restrictions.

He also suggested that vulnerable groups should not attend and that the number of people be kept under 50. "A wedding with an infection is not a lovely thing to remember."

Kacin also said that better oversight of those sent into quarantine is a must in order to contain the spread of the virus.

He was critical of the Health Ministry, saying that quarantine oversight, in the purview of the Health Inspectorate, was "absolutely inadequate".

The speaker said that no inspector should be on vacation. "Oversight is needed now, to see who obeys by their quarantine orders, or else, our hospitals will be bursting at the seams come August," Kacin said.

He also said that a special Covid-19 expert task force had explicitly said that oversight must be boosted, with Kacin expressing hope that Health Minister Tomaž Gantar heard the plea.

The Interior Ministry has offered the Health Inspectorate support in oversight and no health inspector should find themselves in a situation where they do not have police support but need it, said Kacin, but did not mention any specific problems.

Four new coronavirus cases in Slovenia on Sunday

STA, 29 June 2020 - Four new coronavirus infections were confirmed in Slovenia on Sunday, when 300 people took the test. Eight Covid-19 patients were in hospital, none of them in intensive care. No deaths were reported either, the government said on Twitter today.

The latest cases bring the tally of active cases to 89, out of the total of 1,585 so far confirmed.

One of the four new cases was confirmed in Ljubljana and the other three in Ravne na Koroškem. Ljubljana now has 17 active cases and Ravne four, according to the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.

As many as 64 new cases were confirmed in the past seven days.

Those included two pupils in two different classes at Škofljica Primary School, the municipality just south of Ljubljana.

Information on the school's website shows the school had been notified of the infections Thursday, a day after the end of school year, whereupon it alerted all the parents.

Headteacher Roman Brunšek told the STA today that the infected pupils were from the same family and that their classmates had been ordered to self-isolate, as were the teachers who had been in contact with them for a while.

Meanwhile, news broke in the evening that at least three Covid-19 cases were discovered today among employees of the UKC Maribor hospital.

While the reports have not been confirmed yet, some media reported that three employees of the hospital's emergency ward have all the symptoms of the disease and that intensive contact tracing is under way.

So far 111 Covid-19-related deaths have been confirmed in Slovenia.

There are presently 6,380 people in quarantine in Slovenia, while 7,190 quarantine orders have been issued since the beginning of June, the Health Ministry told the STA.

Quarantine orders can be issued for healthy individuals who have been in close contact with an infected person. Moreover, people entering Slovenia from red-listed countries are also subjected to two weeks of quarantine.

29 Jun 2020, 13:14 PM

STA, 28 June 2020 - Due to a growing number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in Slovenia in the past few days, the government will hold a session on Sunday evening to discuss a bill that would implement emergency measures dealing with the potential second wave of infections.

Unofficial sources say that the measures will be primarily aimed at preventing large gatherings, reported Radio Slovenija.

The government will hence likely amend the ban on public gatherings. Currently, events and assemblies are capped at 500 persons due to coronavirus contagion risk.

Milan Krek, the head of the National Public Health Institute (NIJZ), told Radio Slovenija that tightening the ban would be one of the key measures that "reduce risk of the new emergence of infections turning into an epidemic wave".

The daily record of confirmed infections with the novel coronavirus dropped to almost zero in mid-May, however the number of cases has been increasing since mid-June. On 22 June, more than ten cases were confirmed in a single day for the first time since 29 April, show NIJZ data.

Nine new cases were confirmed on Saturday after conducting 625 coronavirus tests, with three cases detected in the coastal Koper municipality.

Govt may be forced to de-list Croatia as Covid-19 safe country

STA, 29 June 2020 - The Slovenian government will be forced to de-list Croatia as a Covid-19 safe country on Tuesday if the number of infections there exceeds 10 per 100,000 residents, government spokesman Jelko Kacin announced on Monday. He said that given the coronavirus curve of the last two weeks, this was expected.

Croatia will in that case be placed on the yellow list, meaning that a warning of the danger will be in place for all Slovenians already in Croatia, those planning to go there, and those returning from the country.

They will be urged to keep safety distance while in the country and contact their doctor if they notice any symptoms of Covid-19 when they return to Slovenia.

Kacin noted that Croatia, which has seen a surge in the number of new infections recently, had decided to lift a ban on nightclub partying, a move Slovenia had not opted for even after the epidemic was declared over.

Kacin said a number of Slovenians had bought tickets for a beach party on the island of Pag.

Slovenia is monitoring the situation very closely, he said, adding that there had also been reports of some problems with counting the new cases in Croatia.

"I think there is plenty of reasons for concern and of course to also take action," he told the press.

The two countries' prime ministers, Janez Janša and Andrej Plenković, have already talked about the issue and would further discuss it over the phone later today, Kacin said.

Slovenia expects Croatia to take certain measures to curb the spread of the virus, including close nightclubs and cancel outdoor parties.

As for other countries in the region, Kacin said the number of infections had been rising drastically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from which 15 cases had been imported to Slovenia.

The outbreak appears to have peaked in North Macedonia, but no infection has come to Slovenia from there, since this was the first country placed on the red list.

In Serbia, many people were infected at a football match, probably more than official figures suggest, commented Kacin, adding that 16 cases had come to Slovenia from there.

Montenegro currently has two major hotspots, one of them being the result of the match in Serbia. The problem with Kosovo, which is also seeing a surge in new cases, is that relatively few tests are conducted there, Kacin noted. Six cases have been imported to Slovenia from there.

In Albania, the number of new infections is also on the rise.

Meanwhile, Kacin highlighted Greece as a stable and safe country.

Out of the total 44 imported cases in June, one each also came from Croatia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Sweden, US, Austria and Germany.

Slovenia places countries on the so-called red list when they have had more than 40 new daily infections per 100,000 inhabitants for the past two weeks. A 14-day quarantine is obligatory for citizens coming from those countries.

Countries seeing more than ten new daily infections per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days are struck from the green list of Covid-19 safe countries and placed onto an intermediate list.

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