What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 27 December
LJUBLJANA - Bank NLB and Belgian KBC, NLB's former owner, sold their life insurance company NLB Vita to the country's second biggest insurer Sava Re for an undisclosed amount believed to be in the EUR 20-30 million range. The sale means that NLB met the last of several conditions attached to the 2013 bailout.
ZAGREB, Croatia - Bankrupt Croatian conglomerate Agrokor, the owner of Slovenian retailer Mercator, turned to the EU to complain about the seizure of Mercator stock by Slovenian anti-trust authorities. In a letter to Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Agrokor chairman Fabris Peruško said the procedures ran contrary to EU and Slovenian law and were motivated by "national political reasons".
SATURDAY, 28 December
LJUBLJANA - PM Marjan Šarec criticised some of his coalition partners in an interview with Dnevnik. He suggested he would not yield to pressure by DeSUS leader Karl Erjavec to act against Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec, his main challenger for the party presidency, until there is firm evidence of any wrongdoing.
SUNDAY, 29 December
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland - Slovenian cross-country skier Anamarija Lampič dominated the World Cup freestyle sprint in Lenzerheide, the second event of the Tour de Ski series. This was the second World Cup win for the 24-year-old.
MONDAY, 30 December
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor offered to help the government undertake much-needed reforms, even as he acknowledged that structural reforms may lead to the demise of the Marjan Šarec government. He told TV Slovenia the government should pick a handful of projects and try to achieve consensus with his help.
CELJE - Three companies that form the heavily indebted retail group Tuš entered preventive financial restructuring. The restructuring for the holding company Tuš Holding, its retail arm Engrotuš and its real estate arm Tuš Nepremičnine was initiated at the request of the companies themselves and with the support of creditors.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia recorded an above-average general government surplus in the third quarter of the year, as it reached EUR 193 million or more than triple that in the same period last year, the Statistics Office said. The surplus represented 1.6% of Slovenia's GDP.
MORAVČE - A giant wooden sculpture resembling US President Donald Trump, which stirred controversy in late summer when it was erected in the village of Sela, was officially unveiled at its new home in Moravče, north-east of Ljubljana. The night before the second unveiling, the effigy was defaced in an effort to add a Hitler-like moustache.
TUESDAY, 31 December
LJUBLJANA - A Vox Populi public opinion poll commissioned by Dnevnik showed that Slovenians are quite satisfied with their lives, with the respondents assessing the quality of life with an average mark of 3.38 on a one-to-five scale. It shows that persons younger than 30 are the most satisfied with their lives and that satisfaction correlates with the level of education.
WEDNESDAY, 1 January
LJUBLJANA - Tens of thousands of Slovenians ushered in the new year in the open, with the largest crowd of 55,000 gathering in four squares in Ljubljana. The capital also saw the traditional fireworks, while some major cities this time opted for quieter celebrations without fireworks.
LJUBLJANA - Uniform cigarette and tobacco packaging rolled out on New Year's Day under new rules, bearing graphic warnings of the adverse health effects of smoking and donning the Pantone 448 C dark brown hue, known as the ugliest colour in the world, to further deter anyone from picking up the harmful habit.
THURSDAY, 2 January
LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry condemned attacks on coalition forces fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and an attack on the US Embassy compound in Baghdad in the strongest terms, urging the Iraqi authorities to ensure security of diplomatic missions in the country. In a response echoing the position of the EU, the Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to the governments of the US and Iraq and to the families of those killed in the attacks.
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