What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 14 February
MUNICH, Germany - Outgoing PM Marjan Šarec rebuked the EU over excessive self-absorption and inefficiency as he spoke on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Illustrating, he said the bloc was not even capable of agreeing its expansion to the Western Balkans.
LJUBLJANA - Outgoing PM Marjan Šarec urged for the chairs of "relevant parliamentary committees" to start actively discussing potentially problematic foreign funding of Slovenian parties and their media outlets. This followed media reports that Hungarian companies were financing media outlets close to Janez Janša's Democratic Party (SDS). Šarec also warned against a potential new Janša-led coalition government.
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor announced he would hold a second round of consultations with parliamentary parties on 24 and 25 February to determine whether there is sufficient consensus for him to nominate a prime minister-designate.
KOMEN - Addressing a World War II commemoration, President Borut Pahor expressed sadness over the "abuse of 10 February, the Foibe Remembrance Day," and regret that senior Italian officials ignored the historical truth Slovenia and Italy established together.
LJUBLJANA - The Statistics Office reported that the value of construction work put in place in Slovenia increased by 3.3% in 2019, a significant slowdown compared to the 20% expansion in 2018.
SATURDAY, 15 February
MURSKA SOBOTA - Addressing an event marking the 31st anniversary of the Democratic Party (SDS), its leader Janez Janša said a new early election was likely close despite the SDS being in talks with the Modern Centre Party (SMC), the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and New Slovenia (NSi) to form a government.
LJUBLJANA - The Democratic Party (SDS) polled at 20.1% in a survey commissioned by broadcaster Nova24TV, up 1.8 percentage point from a week ago, followed by the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) at 12.8% (down 4.4pp) and the Social Democrats (SD) at 6.5%.
LJUBLJANA - Stojan Nikolić, the CEO of the power group HSE, indicated in an interview with Dnevnik that TEŠ6, Slovenia's newest coal-fired generator, was likely to close down early because its supplier, the Velenje mine, was unlikely to be viable after 2045.
KRANJSKA GORA - Local Meta Hrovat paced third at the Alpine Ski World Cup giant slalom event for the Golden Fox Cup along with Swiss Wendy Holdener, following Alice Robinson of New Zealand in first and Slovak Petra Vlhova in second. Vlhova secured the Golden Fox trophy by finishing first in the slalom on Sunday. The two-day event attracted 10,000 spectators.
PTUJ - The 60th Kurentovanje carnival, Slovenia's largest, got under way, bringing together more than 2,200 traditional costumed figures or 44 groups from across the world, including four costumes protected by UNESCO.
SUNDAY, 16 February
MUNICH, Germany - Foreign Minister Miro Cerar attended panels on the Western Balkans and the Three Seas Initiative and held a number of bilateral meetings at the 2020 Munich Security Conference.
BAD MITTERNDORF, Austria - Timi Zajc placed third at the Ski Jumping World Cup event to secure a second podium at the same venue after finishing second the day before for his third podium finish this winter.
CHICAGO, US - Luka Dončić scored 8 points in the 2020 NBA All Star Game, contributing four passes for the winning Team LeBron, headed by the legendary LeBron James of the LA Lakers. Team LeBron won the game 157 to 155 against Team Giannis, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
MONDAY, 17 February
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Foreign Minister Miro Cerar, attending the Foreign Affairs Council, assessed that European Council President Charles Michel's proposal for the EU's 2021-2027 budget was still inadequate for Slovenia despite slight improvements in cohesion policy.
LJUBLJANA - Jernej Pavlič, secretary general of the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB), denied the speculation that the party was considering joining a potential centre-right government that is being formed by Janez Janša.
LJUBLJANA - The Democrats (SDS) gained 2.6 percentage points to 19.6% in the Vox Populi poll to overtake the LMŠ party of the outgoing PM Marjan Šarec, which slipped back 2.3 points to 17.1%. The poll, commissioned by the newspapers Dnevnik and Večer, also showed over half the respondents favoured a snap election.
TUESDAY, 18 February
LJUBLJANA - A delegation of the parliamentary Commission for Oversight of Intelligence and Security Services, headed by vice-chair Žan Mahnič (SDS), made an unannounced visit to the National Bureau of Investigation examine the allegation that outgoing PM Marjan Šarec and his state secretary Damir Črnčec had abused intelligence and security services to "influence, threaten and extort MPs and leaderships of parties of the potential future coalition". Šarec and Črnčec denied the allegation as fake news propagated by the SDS. Police Commissioner Tatjana Bobnar denied any police spying, accusing Manhič of threatening her as she refused to hand over documentation she said exceeded the commission's powers. In response, parties urged for the allegations to be investigated. The police and the Information Commissioner are looking into the matter.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Donald Tusk, the head of the European People's Party (EPP), pleaded with the Slovenian members of the EPP not to waste the chance to take "leadership in both the parliament and the government", after meeting New Slovenia (NSi) head Matej Tonin. NSi is one of the parties in talks to form a government led by the fellow EPP member Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Health Committee and the government were briefed by health officials that Slovenia was well prepared for early diagnosis in case of an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. However, MPs were also told that hospitals could not handle a great number of patients.
LJUBLJANA - A petition addressed to PM Marjan Šarec and backed by 12,700 individuals and 255 organisations called for the government to take more resolute action to decarbonise the energy, transport and agriculture sectors.
LJUBLJANA - Police statistics showed the number of cases of illegal border crossing nearly doubled (+85%) year-on-year to 595 in January. Most of the migrants were returned to Croatia.
LJUBLJANA - The Pension and Disability Insurance Institute (ZPIZ) endorsed a regular annual adjustment of pensions to wage and consumer prices growth as a result of which pensioners will get a 3.2% rise at the end of the month. Higher pensions will cost the pension fund EUR 172 million a year.
LJUBLJANA - 2TDK, the state company managing the construction of the new railway between the port of Koper and Divača, announced it would ask Markomark Nival, the bidder that won the subsequently annulled tender for the first of several bridges on the planned track, to change its subcontractor which cited flawed reference in the bid. This was after the National Review Commission said 2TDK had been right to doubt the reference but should not have annulled the tender.
LJUBLJANA - The Trade Union of Journalists and Journalists' Association protested against layoffs at Delo, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, saying the management was demolishing the newspaper and Slovenian journalism by shedding a quarter of its workforce within three years.
LJUBLJANA - The energy company Petrol confirmed that it had been chosen as the best bidder to acquire E3, the subsidiary of the power distributor Elektro Primorska which is one of the largest electricity sellers in the country. The newspaper Finance reported that Petrol would pay EUR 15 million for E3, which would raise its share in the electricity retail market to 20%.
WEDNESDAY, 19 February
LJUBLJANA - A group of NGOs successfully challenged the decision of the Environment Agency that no environmental impact assessment is necessary for the 20-year life-span extension for Slovenia's sole nuclear power plant.
LJUBLJANA - Tourism companies and tourism and hospitality trade unions signed an annex to the collective bargaining agreement to increase the lowest basic wages; these will go up by 5% on 1 March and 5.25% more on 1 July, and the holiday allowance will increase by EUR 100 to EUR 1,150.
SLOVENJ GRADEC - The 14th annual auction of valuable timber saw a record EUR 2 million worth of logs change hands. More than half of the wood was sold abroad with the biggest buyer coming from China. A 100-year old sycamore maple log was sold to a German buyer for EUR 29,160 or EUR 14,414 per cubic metre, which the organizers described as an absolute record.
LJUBLJANA - The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology announced Slovenian companies were now able to do business on Amazon Europe. This was after the US tech company made technical adjustments to include Slovenia among supported countries.
LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Culture Committee called on the corruption watchdog to look into appointments of heads of culture institutions made by the Culture Ministry due to suspicions of politically-motivated staffing. Culture Minister Zoran Poznič denied the allegations.
LJUBLJANA - Film director Ema Kugler was declared the winner of this year's Štiglic lifetime achievement award in film and theatre directing. She will receive the accolade given out by the Association of Slovenian Directors at an award ceremony on 27 February.
THURSDAY, 20 February
LJUBLJANA - Two of the six Slovenian passengers quarantined for over a fortnight on the cruise ship Diamond Princess in the Japanese port of Yokohama tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The other four tested negative. Two of arrived in Slovenia on a commercial flight and were placed under a 14-day quarantine, while two are still waiting to return.
BRUSSELS - Arriving for an EU summit aiming to reach a consensus on the bloc's budget for 2021-2027, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec said Slovenia could not accept the latest compromise proposal under which it would lose 24% in cohesion funds. He said negotiations would be tough.
LJUBLJANA - RTV Slovenija, the public broadcaster, warned of escalating attacks on its journalists, editors and other staff in recent days in the form of threatening and offensive phone calls, e-mails, letters and social network posts, condemning them in the strongest terms as an attack on journalism.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's largest bank, NLB reported its group net profit decrease by 5% to EUR 193.6 million last year. The core bank's profit rose by 6.5% to EUR 176.1 million.
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