Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 21-27 July

FRIDAY, 21 July

LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly overrode the upper chamber's veto on the long-term care bill with an absolute majority vote of 52:10. Minister for Solidarity-Based Future Simon Maljevac remains optimistic that the law will take effect at the start of the new year.

LJUBLJANA - Organisations representing businesses announced they were quitting the Economic and Social Council because their opinion on laws such as long-term care was ignored and due to ever more burdens imposed on the economy. The PM's office said the decision was part of the strategy to prevent the adoption of laws aimed at improving citizens' social security.

LJUBLJANA - President Nataša Pirc Musar was negatively surprised by the government issuing an opinion that considered the changes to immigration and asylum laws adopted by the previous government constitutional. Some of the ministers unwittingly endorsed the position even if they challenged the laws at the Constitutional Court in the previous term.

KLAGENFURT, Austria - Taking issue with certain decisions of the Austrian authorities, an umbrella organisation of the Slovenian minority in the state of Carinthia asked that minority representatives be included in the ongoing efforts to prepare new curricula for Austrian schools.

LJUBLJANA - The consumer confidence index improved by one percentage point on the monthly level in July after deteriorating in June. In the yearly comparison it rose by seven percentage points, according to the Statistics Office.

LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian police processed 20,274 illegal crossings of the border in the first six months of 2023, which is almost three times more than in the same period last year. Citizens of Afghanistan, Morocco and Bangladesh were the most frequently involved in illegal crossings of the border in that period.

DIJON, France - Slovenian rider Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) won stage 19 of the Tour de France in a photo finish ahead of Danish rider Kasper Asgreen and Australian Ben O'Connor. "This victory means a lot because it's hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist," Mohorič said, adding that he had to do this for the late teammate Gino Mäder.

SATURDAY, 22 July

ČRNA NA KOROŠKEM - Defence Minister Marjan Šarec visited Črna na Koroškem in northern Slovenia, where severe storms had triggered landslides and torrential flooding. The damage is extensive, and all available teams are on the ground, including soldiers with machinery, the minister said.

BOVEC - Addressing the 28th annual get-together of his Democratic Party (SDS), Janez Janša pointed to what he believes are the wrong decisions of the current government and to a crisis of values in Slovenian society.

LE MARKSTEIN, France - Slovenia's Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, ahead of Felix Gall of Austria and Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, who a day later defended his 2022 Tour title. Finishing second in the general classification, Pogačar won his fourth consecutive white jersey.

SUNDAY, 23 July

NOVA GORICA - A 250kg British aerial bomb from WWII with around 100kg of explosive was deactivated as two bomb technicians managed to remove both fuses at the train station in Nova Gorica, which was often bombed by the allies just before the end of the war. Some 3,300 residents from both sides of the Slovenian-Italian border had to be evacuated as a precaution.

LJUBLJANA - The government's approval rating improved by one percentage point in the latest poll commissioned by the private broadcaster POP TV, but the Democrats (SDS) are still half a point ahead of the ruling party, the Freedom Movement.

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry said that three Slovenian families had been safely evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes, which was engulfed in wildfires. The ministry strongly advised Slovenians not to travel to Rhodes, especially the south-east.

MARIBOR - The summer edition of the week-long European Youth Olympic Festival opened in Maribor, bringing together some 2,400 young athletes from 48 countries to compete in eleven sports.

MONDAY, 24 July

LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob announced legislative amendments that will speed up the payment of financial assistance for storm-related damage. Based on a preliminary recovery plan, municipalities would be entitled to an upfront payment of 20%.

SLOVENSKA BISTRICA - The Labour Inspectorate said it had uncovered a new case of exploitation of foreign workers, this time at the Slovenska Bistrica location of Alumero. The aluminium products maker was involved in hiring and exploiting Ukrainian workers through unlicensed intermediaries. Fines amounting to around EUR 40,000 were issued.

LJUBLJANA - The 2023 European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence opened at the Ljubljana Faculty of Computer and Information Science bringing courses and lectures by 60 world-renowned experts and hosting 630 participants from more than 40 countries.

ROME, Italy - The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the expulsion of Slovenian priest and artist Marko Rupnik from the Jesuit order was now final. Rupnik, who is accused of having mentally and sexually abused nuns, will remain a priest for now.

LJUBLJANA - Representatives of 20 organisations presented Agriculture Ministry representatives with a petition signed by more than 24,000 people who oppose the government's plan to remove nutrias as an invasive alien species from the Ljubljana Marshes. Slovenia Helsinki Monitor later petitioned the Constitutional Court to stay and review the decision to allow the animals' trapping.

LOS ANGELES, US - Slovenian composer Anže Rozman was nominated for the 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on the theme music for the Prehistoric Planet documentary series, which he wrote with Kara Talve and Hans Zimmer.

TUESDAY, 25 July

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia was pummelled by another wave of storms on 24 and 25 July, causing power outages and additional damage to infrastructure, buildings, crops and forests. The west of the country, the Celje area in the east and Koroška in the north were worst hit.

LJUBLJANA - The Ljubljana-based International Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Amazon Web Services announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind global programme to support entrepreneurs and startups using advanced cloud computing and AI to create new solutions addressing the climate crisis.

LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a regulation setting down additional medical services which will be paid based on realisation. The regulation applies to those specialist services where at least 1,500 people were waiting beyond the maximum allowable waiting time on 1 June, and to hip and knee replacement surgery and hernia surgery in hospital.

LJUBLJANA - The anti-graft watchdog confirmed it is conducting a preliminary inquiry into potential issues with the parliamentary commission investigating alleged political meddling in the police and other independent state bodies under the current and previous governments.

ROME, Italy - Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko identified transition to sustainable farming production and development of the countryside as Slovenia's priorities, as she addressed the UN Food Systems Summit in Rome.

PODGORICA, Montenegro - The Ljubljana-based NLB bank announced that together with its Montenegrin subsidiary it had signed an agreement on a ten-year, EUR 24 million loan to the Israeli shopping centre operator BIG CEE, which will be used to purchase a commercial and residential complex in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica.

LJUBLJANA - A total of 2.47 million tourists were recorded in Slovenia in the first half of the year, which is 6% more than in the same period last year. While the numbers for local tourists dropped significantly, a sharp increase was recorded in foreign tourists.

LJUBLJANA - Business sentiment decreased in July for the seventh consecutive month, down 1.6 percentage points compared to June and 5.5 percentage points compared to July 2022, with the relevant indicator standing at -6.5 points, data from the Statistics Office showed.

WEDNESDAY, 26 July

LJUBLJANA - Storms bringing hail, strong winds and heavy rainfall raging across Slovenia for the past two weeks damaged crops, orchards and vineyards in an area of 10,000 hectares, according to first estimates by the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry. The chamber urged adoption of an emergency bill to help farmers.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's power holding HSE announced it had signed a contract on EU funding with the Clean Hydrogen Partnership for the project North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley, which in effect means the six-year project received the green light. The project will be launched in September.

LJUBLJANA - The National Hydrogen Association of Slovenia was established this month to bring together companies, research centres, universities and other stakeholders involved in development and use of hydrogen technologies, the association's president Mihael Cigler announced.

THURSDAY, 27 July

LJUBLJANA - Agriculture, Forestry and Food Minister Irena Šinko and her Macedonian counterpart Ljupco Nikolovski discussed forests, young people in rural areas, and cooperatives as Nikolovski began a two-day visit to Slovenia.

SVETA ANA - The extreme weather with downpours, hail and strong winds has caused extensive damage to agricultural land in the northeast of Slovenia this year, with local agriculture officials estimating damage in the area of Štajerska and Pomurje at up to EUR 40 million.

LJUBLJANA - The Court of Audit released a report finding that the Agriculture Ministry's efforts in adapting agriculture to climate change were only partly effective in the period between 2018 and mid-2022. The ministry started turning things around already while the audit was underway.

LJUBLJANA - Tina Gaber, the life companion of Prime Minister Robert Golob, upset experts and the public by suggesting a study drawn up in 2019 by the Biotechnical Faculty to propose measures to manage the populations of nutrias and muskrats as invasive species in the Ljubljana Marshes entailed corruption motives. Analyst Aljaž Pengov Bitenc said that as the prime minister's partner Gaber should better understand the power of her words, and should exercise self-restraint.

KLAGENFURT, Austria - The assembly of the Austrian state of Carinthia passed a report on the situation of the Slovenian minority. Minority member Franc Jožef Smrtnik of the Team Carinthia party said that progress could be seen with regard to bilingual signs, while noting shortcomings in the use of Slovenian in the courts.

NASSAU, Bahamas - Slovenia's freediver Alenka Artnik set another world record, diving 109 metres deep in bi-fin discipline (CWTB) at the Vertical Blue competition in the Bahamas.