Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 29 December - 4 January

FRIDAY, 29 December

LJUBLJANA - Annual inflation in Slovenia dropped by 0.7 percentage points to 4.2% in December, the lowest rate in more than two years and down from a peak of more than 10% in 2022, the Statistics Office said.

KOPER - The port of Koper reported setting a new record by handling 900,000 vehicles this year, surpassing the previous record from 2022 by almost 100,000 units. At the container terminal, it exceeded a million handled container units (TEU) for the second time in history.

LJUBLJANA - Simon Kardum resigned as member of the RTV Slovenija management board. The move came after he expressed concern about significant programming cuts for 2024. He said the road the public broadcaster had taken now was not the right one.

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan - Vladimir Fedoseev, the Russian chess grandmaster playing for Slovenia as of 2023, won silver at the world championships in rapid chess in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Collecting 9.5 points out of the possible 13, he finished only half a point behind the FIDE world chess rankings leader Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

SATURDAY, 30 December

LJUBLJANA - The trade union at the retailer Tuš called off a one-day strike due to be held on the last shopping day of the year at the last minute after accepting the management's proposal for a raise in the basic wage to EUR 1,180 gross.

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany - Slovenian ski jumper Nika Prevc won the first ever women's World Cup competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with 133 and 130 metres and 267.4 points, the first stop on the new Two Nights Tour for women ski jumpers.

SUNDAY, 31 December

NOVO MESTO - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said over 60,000 people entered Slovenia illegally in 2023, but over 95% of those who asked for asylum left the country of their own accord. He said that 60,000 "is an extremely big number. But despite this, the police have been successful this year."

LJUBLJANA - Goran Dragić, the Slovenian point guard who spent 15 seasons in the NBA, formally announced his retirement from active basketball. The 37-year-old thanked all who helped him on his path and expressed the wish to continue working in basketball.

MONDAY, 1 January

NEW YORK, US - Slovenia formally started its two-year stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. In a message on the occasion, Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said this was a major opportunity but also responsibility as the current situation in the world was demanding and complex.

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany - Slovenia's Anže Lanišek won the Ski Jumping World Cup competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the second event of the prestigious Four Hills Tournament. Lanišek, the third best ski jumper of the 2022/23 season, beat two-time Four Hills champion Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan.

TUESDAY, 2 January

LJUBLJANA - Zoran Martić took over as the head coach of the Ljubljana basketball club Cedevita Olimpija a day after Simone Pianigiani resigned due to health reasons. The 58-year-old signed the contract until the end of the season.

WEDNESDAY, 3 January

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia rejected recent statements by members of the Israeli government proposing mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. The Foreign Ministry said on X that "any displacement of the Palestinian population from Gaza is contrary to international law and endangers even further the prospects for a viable two-state solution".

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia issued a EUR 1.5 billion 10-year bond on international capital markets with a 3% coupon rate and 10 March 2034 as maturity date. The bond's maturity yield is 3.043% and price 99.621%. The spread over the mid-point interest rate swap rate was 58 basis points. Most of the investors were fund managers (37%), followed by official institutions such as central banks (20%), banks or treasuries (18%), insurance companies or pension funds (12%), and venture capital funds (9%).

LJUBLJANA - The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal in a case in which opposition SDS leader Janez Janša was found guilty of insulting two journalists by calling them "washed-up prostitutes" in a 2016 tweet. The court held that Janša did not sufficiently explain why he appealed on a point of law.

LJUBLJANA - New Slovenia announced it would set in motion proceedings for a referendum if the government pushed ahead with provisions of a reform energy bill that target high-carbon sources of heating. The opposition party sees the measures as excessive.

VILLACH, Austria - Slovenian ski jumper Nika Prevc continued her winning streak by dominating the FIS World Cup individual competition on the normal hill in Villach and climbing to the top of the overall rankings. This was her second victory in less than a week.

THURSDAY, 4 January

LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Robert Golob nominated 36-year-old Freedom Movement deputy Mateja Čalušić for agriculture minister. The vice-chair of the parliamentary Agriculture Committee with a degree in agricultural and horticultural studies, she advocates for a competitive agricultural sector and food industry, as well as for shorter supply chains and local self-sufficiency. The Farmers' Trade Union said it was worried she will not be dedicated to agriculture, the traditional food growing, Slovenian food tradition and life in the countryside.

LJUBLJANA - Judges and prosecutors suspended their work for an hour to protest the government failing to implement a salary raise in line with a Constitutional Court ruling also announced a work-to-rule strike between 10 and 24 January over the matter. They also urged Prime Minister Robert Golob and Justice Minister Dominika Švarc Pipan to step down.

LJUBLJANA - The country's exports of goods rose by 4.8% to EUR 50.9 billion and imports of goods by 1.8% to EUR 53 billion in the first eleven months of last year over the same period in 2022. The export-import ratio was 96.2%, the Statistics Office said.

LJUBLJANA - UKC Ljubljana, the country's largest hospital, and the Ljubljana Medical Faculty reached a court settlement on Wednesday resolving a EUR 41 million debt that nearly led to the faculty suspending microbiological and pathological testing for the hospital in mid-December. They agreed the medical school will write off EUR 8 million of the EUR 41.3 million debt, while the hospital will pay off EUR 30.2 million in seven instalments by July 2026.

LJUBLJANA - The civil initiative Voice of the People lodged in parliamentary procedure an emergency health bill aiming to stabilise the public health system. Opposing the doctors' strike called for 9 January, the initiative announced a protest for the same day. The coalition parties said some of the proposals in the bill had been included in the coalition-sponsored emergency healthcare act passed in December.