What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 28 February
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's GDP expanded by 2.4% in 2019 after growing by 1.7% in the final quarter year-on-year, showed the first estimate released by the Statistics Office. The annual increase is slightly below what had been announced in projections.
LJUBLJANA - A group of NGOs staged a rally against the emerging centre-right coalition, with protesters urging the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and Modern Centre Party (SMC) in particular to reconsider their decisions to join the "coalition of hate" led the Democrats (SDS). More than
thousand people - 3,000, according to the organisers - gathered. The organisers later filed two criminal complaints, one against an unidentified person who shouted "Kill [SDS leader] Janša" in the crowd and the other against SDS MP Zvonko Černač, who reposted a Twitter post that announced violence against he protesters before the rally.
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian web portal Oštro along with two more investigative journalism groups in the region run a report alleging that a Slovenia-based company owned by a Hungarian entrepreneur with ties to Hungarian PM Viktor Orban was used to launder illegal Hungarian government money and finance media propaganda in North Macedonia.
LJUBLJANA - Consumer prices in Slovenia were up by 2% on average in February over the same month in 2019, mostly due to higher prices of food and housing. More expensive holiday packages were the main factor in the monthly inflation, which stood at 0.7%.
LJUBLJANA - Luka Koper, the operator of Slovenia's sole maritime port, reported its group net profit plunge by 32% to EUR 40.4 million in 2019 due to a slowdown of global trade.
LJUBLJANA - The insurance group Sava reported collecting EUR 599.3 million in gross premiums last year, 9.7% more than in 2018, as its net profit rose 16.7% to EUR 50.2 million.
KIDRIČEVO - The foreign-owned car upholstery maker Boxmark Leather announced it would lay off a total of 288 workers at its sole remaining Slovenian location, in Kidričevo, by the end of April.
SATURDAY, 29 February
LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry welcomed the landmark peace agreement between the US and Afghanistan's Taliban, saying that only bilateral and inclusive dialogue striving for compromise solutions could ensure a successful agreement leading to sustainable peace and stability for all citizens of Afghanistan.
LAHTI, Finland - The Slovenian men's ski jumping team placed second in the Ski Jumping World Cup event in Finland's Lahti, finishing behind Germany.
MONDAY, 2 March
LJUBLJANA - Miro Cerar, the outgoing foreign minister, quit the party he founded, saying the Modern Centre Party (SMC) lost its face after joining the new coalition led by Janez Janša of the right-wing Democrats (SDS). His successor at the head of the SMC Zdravko Počivalšek said he had withdrawn an offer to Cerar to become parliamentary speaker before Cerar made the announcement.
LJUBLJANA - Outgoing PM Marjan Šarec announced in the face of a potential new migration wave that legislative changes granting additional powers to the army were ready and may be confirmed by parliament as needed.
LJUBLJANA - The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the Slovenian Association of Journalists in condemning the "intensive attacks" on journalists reporting about alleged funding from Hungary of media close to the Democrats (SDS).
NOVO MESTO - Revoz, the Slovenian subsidiary of the French car maker Renault, suspended production for three days due to irregular supply of car parts from Turkey blamed partly on the coronavirus outbreak in China. Revoz also confirmed that it would produce the new electric version of the Renault Twingo, to be rolled out at the end of the year.
LJUBLJANA - Triglav, Slovenia's leading insurance group, saw net profit increase 4% to almost EUR 84 million in 2019 on the back of an 11% increase in gross written premiums, which totalled EUR 1.18 billion, show unaudited results.
LJUBLJANA - Ulay, a major contemporary visual artist best known as a pioneer of body art and collaborator of performance artist Marina Abramović, died aged 76.
TUESDAY, 3 March
LJUBLJANA - Democrats (SDS) leader Janez Janša was appointed PM-designate, receiving the mandate to form his third government. Having forged a centre-right coalition with three more parties - the NSi, SMC and DeSUS -after Marjan Šarec resigned as PM, Janša won 52 votes in the 90-member legislature. The priorities listed by Janša include cutting red tape, launching a fund in which state assets would be pooled to help finance public pensions, liberalisation of the economy and more competition in education and healthcare.
LJUBLJANA - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar hosted his new North Macedonian counterpart Nakje Chulev for a meeting that focused on illegal migration, including the situation on the Turkish-Greek border. The pair agreed that the situation on the Greek-Turkish border required close monitoring and united response, with regular exchange of information being of essence.
LJUBLJANA - Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković and six co-defendants pleaded not guilty in a case focussing on EU funds abuse and bank fraud in the construction of the Stožice sports park as they faced the Ljubljana District Court. A total of nine defendants are indicted of abuse of office, fraud of EU funds, fraud to acquire a loan and forgery of documents in the multi-million euro project.
LJUBLJANA - Bojan Požar, the editor of news portal Požareport received a judicial admonition for writing in 2016 that Viktor Knavs, the father of US First Lady Melania Trump, had been in prison for tax evasion. This comes after Požar was ordered to pay damages to Knavs in a related defamation lawsuit last year.
LJUBLJANA - Actor Bojan Emeršič won the Silver Thistle for the most sexist statement of 2019. "I don't like the excessive emancipation of the last 15 years ... This affects erotics, which is not right, because men and women are different. Man has always been a hunter but is now losing his primary role," he said in an interview with Delo.
WEDNESDAY, 4 March
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia recorded the first infection with the novel coronavirus. The infected person, aged about 60, had been on a trip to Morocco and returned home via Venice airport. Four more cases were confirmed a day later, including two persons who had been in contact with the first individual.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar announced Slovenia was deploying 35 police officers as part of a Frontex rapid border intervention team sent to Greece to help the country deal with an increased influx of migrants after Turkey decided to open its border with Greece.
DOBOVA - Thirty citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan were found by Slovenian border police hiding in sealed wagons of a train carrying clay. The foreigners, including 12 children aged between five and fourteen as well as a woman in a late stage of pregnancy, were literally buried in clay.
LJUBLJANA - The Employment Service said it had registered 77,484 unemployed people in February, 3% fewer than the month before and 4.1% fewer than in February 2019.
LJUBLJANA - Lotrič Meroslovje, a meteorology company, was declared the winner of this year's Business Excellence Award conferred by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the SPIRIT agency.
MARIBOR - Hydro power plant operator Dravske elektrarne Maribor (DEM) is claiming EUR 6.5 million in damages from the state after the government suspended the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the river Mura in the east in the face strong opposition by locals and environmentalists.
VRHNIKA - Kemis, one of the two biggest hazardous waste management companies in Slovenia, was cut off power supply after building authorities found that much of the facility near Vrhnika had been rebuilt illegally following a May 2017 fire.
THURSDAY, 5 March
LJUBLJANA - A bipartisan bill designed to reform electoral law by abolishing electoral districts and introducing a preference vote at the level of the existing eight electoral units, fell three votes short of the needed two-thirds majority of 60 votes to pass at the National Assembly.
LJUBLJANA - Igor Zorčič, former deputy group leader of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), was elected parliamentary speaker by secret ballot in a 48:29 vote. He succeeds Social Democrat (SD) leader Dejan Židan, who stepped down as soon as Janez Janša was elected prime minister.
LJUBLJANA - A proposal to reintroduce mandatory military service tabled by the Democrats (SDS) as one of the points on the agenda of the incoming ruling coalition was defeated in parliament in a 36:51 vote. The Modern Centre Party (SMC) and New Slovenia (NSi), the two of the four parties forming the new SDS-led coalition, did not back the bill, same as the newly-formed opposition.
LJUBLJANA - The caretaker government endorsed a scheme for drawing funds from the national climate fund in 2020-2023. Some EUR 350 million is projected to be available. A total of EUR 106.3 million is to be allocated for tackling climate change this year.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly endorsed the national environmental protection programme for the period until 2030, whose implementation will cost an estimated 47 million to 53 million euro a year.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly unanimously endorsed the NSi-sponsored amendments to the penal code to extend the statute of limitations for gravest sexual offences to between 30 and 90 years, up from between 10 and 30 years. Parliament also endorsed an amendment to the property code law to introduce a new definition of animals as sentient living beings.
LJUBLJANA - The Association of WWII Veterans, the Jewish Community in Slovenia and six victims of the WWII Home Guard militia have petitioned the Constitutional Court to review the recent decision of the Supreme Court to annual the 1946 treason verdict of Leon Rupnik, a Nazi collaborationist general.
AJDOVŠČINA - The Slovenian ultralight aircraft maker Pipistrel signed a letter of intent with Australian company Eyre to There Aviation for the production of the electric two-seaters Alpha Electro. In the first phase 15 aircraft are to be exported to Australia, later the aircraft would be produced there.
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