STA, 30 June 2021 - Prime Minister Janez Janša raised the prospect of schools having to be kept closed in the autumn unless everyone gets vaccinated against Covid-19, while he also discussed EU presidency and investment in the Podravje region in a radio interview during the government's visit to the north-eastern region on Wednesday.
"If we get vaccinated, schools and kindergartens will be open in the autumn, if we don't, they won't be and we'll be paying the price again," he told an interview with Radio City.
Like the health minister before him, Janša said it was just a question of time when the more virulent Delta variant of coronavirus would spread and how intensively.
"We have an answer to it and it's vaccination," he said. "Seeing what's happening in Britain, which has one of the highest rates of vaccination and at the same time the most Delta variant, we are no longer talking percentages, we're talking we must all get vaccinated," Janša said.
As Slovenia assumes the rotating EU presidency tomorrow, Janša said the government would get organised so it could continue with regional visits in the coming months and make sure the available funding, including from the EU, be distributed and invested fairly and effectively.
"The government's visit to the region at a time when it is assuming the presidency is a symbolic gesture showing this government will not forget about Slovenia even during the presidency."
Slovenia's eastern cohesion region, which includes Podravje, has EUR 400 more available for investment over the next seven years than in the previous period, Janša said, promising "substantial financial injections" for Maribor.
He pledged the government would do everything in its power to keep the headquarters of NKBM bank, which has recently been acquired by the Hungarian bank OTP, in Maribor. "We'll contact the owners and persuade them that Slovenia is not just Ljubljana, that it's this government's plan to decentralise Slovenia."
