Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 19-25 January

FRIDAY, 19 January

LJUBLJANA - Some 200 Slovenian troops will take part in Steadfast Defender, the largest military drill conducted by NATO since the Cold War, featuring 90,000 soldiers from 31 member states and Sweden. Slovenian soldiers will be participating in three exercises between late February and late March in Slovenia, Poland and Hungary.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia is considering entering an agreement under which its several million euros-worth claim to the Serbian state-owned weapons manufacturer Jugoimport-SDPR would be settled by the company's supply of weapons and other military equipment.

BUDAPEST, Hungary/SCHLADMING, Austria - Migrations topped the agenda as Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar held talks with his Hungarian and Austrian counterparts, Sandor Pinter and Gerhard Karner, respectively, on separate occasions on 18 and 24 January.

LJUBLJANA - Around 56% of Slovenian employers plan to raise wages in the first half of the year and 46% expect to expand their workforce, showed a survey by the employment company Manpower. The net hiring forecast for the first half of the year is meanwhile significantly lower than last year, at +42.41% compared to +54.49%.

MURSKA SOBOTA - The Murska Sobota District Court approved a bankruptcy application by Geoenergo, a Slovenian company that paired up with the UK's Ascent Resources to extract gas by controversial fracking in the northeast of the country. Ascent Resources had asked the court to prevent the insolvency proceeding, arguing Geoenergo tried to abuse insolvency legislation to avoid its claim.

SATURDAY, 20 January

LJUBLJANA - The Voice of Pensioners, a party that emerged out of a series of protest rallies whose main demand was higher pensions, was officially launched. Its initiator and leader, former Democrats (SDS) MP Pavel Rupar, announced the party would run in this year's elections to the European parliament.

LJUBLJANA - Dnevnik reported that two bids, both significantly higher than the projected value, had been submitted for the main part of the revamping of Ljubljana's central train station. The lower bid, worth EUR 260.8 million, was submitted by a joint venture featuring in-house builder SŽ - Železniško Gradbeno Podjetje Ljubljana, and construction companies Kolektor Igin, CGP and GH Holding.

MARIBOR - The statement by entrepreneur and professional soldier Bojan Lunežnik about the need to be active and strive to make it in life won the 2023 Spade of the Year title, given out by the newspaper Večer for the most apt statement capturing the zeitgeist last year.

SUNDAY, 21 January

LJUBLJANA - A public opinion poll on the European Parliament elections, commissioned by the Nova24TV station, saw the Democrats (SDS) polling at 19.2%, followed by the Social Democrats (SD) at 10.4% and the Freedom Movement at 9%. New Slovenia (NSi) was in the fourth place at 6.4%, followed by the Left at 4.8%.

MONDAY, 22 January

BRUSSELS, Belgium/NEW YORK, US - The only guarantee for the safety of Israelis is a Palestinian state, Slovenia's Tanja Fajon said at a session of EU foreign ministers, which was also attended by their Israeli counterpart Israel Katz. A day later, she called for immediate ceasefire during her first address to the UN Security Council since Slovenia became a non-permanent member. On 22 January, Slovenia's representative to the Security Council, Samuel Žbogar, urged Russia to end its aggression on Ukraine.

LJUBLJANA - The anti-graft watchdog said it suspended its investigation into the alleged pressure from PM Robert Golob on former Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar and other ministry employees because the ongoing police investigation into the same matter takes precedence.

BRDO PRI KRANJU - Solidarity of other countries with Slovenia in the face of the August 2023 floods and support for Slovenia's successful bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council was noted as President Nataša Pirc Musar and PM Robert Golob hosted the New Year's reception for the diplomatic corps.

LJUBLJANA - Doctors intensified their strike, increasing the number of services affected. Throughout the second week of the strike, several patient advocates said they received reports of doctors failing to issue sick notes, which means patients are not eligible for sick pay. The Health Ministry underlined that doctors are obligated to issue sick notes, while their union rejected this. Talks, which are ongoing, have so far brought no progress.

LJUBLJANA - An internal investigation by the national railways operator showed that human error was entirely to blame for an accident that resulted in two deaths on railway tracks just south of Postojna in late December. It found that the signalman failed to inform the maintenance crew that a passenger train was approaching.

TUESDAY, 23 January

LJUBLJANA - The Democrats (SDS) announced an ouster motion against Digital Transformation Minister Emilija Stojmenova Duh over a contentious EUR 6.5 million purchase of 13,000 laptops, which the opposition thinks was conducted in a non-transparent way. The party filed the motion two days later, and the minister dismissed the allegation.

LJUBLJANA - Nearly 60 house searches were conducted as part of an investigation into corporate crime and corruption, including at Ljubljana's Town Hall and at the home of Mayor Zoran Janković. While police details are scarce, the mayor seems to be one of the main suspects regarding the C0 sewerage project and football club sponsorship. Media reports also suggested wrongdoing in the issuing of a building permit for high-end apartment complex Bellevue Living.

LJUBLJANA - The gross minimum wage will be raised by 4.2% to EUR 1,253.90 this year, Labour Minister Luka Mesec said. This is a minimum indexation required under the law, as the increase will adjust the minimum wage only to annual inflation recorded at the end of 2023. While employers are happy with the increase, unions are not.

LJUBLJANA - Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič became the third deputy prime minister, joining the foreign and labour ministers, Tanja Fajon and Luka Mesec. He was appointed by the government upon Prime Minister Robert Golob's proposal to fill the post vacated by Danijel Bešič Loredan when he resigned as health minister in July 2023.

LJUBLJANA - The Judicial Council once again turned to the European Commission, this time notifying it that the government and the parliament have failed to implement the Constitutional Court ruling on judges' pay by the 3 January 2024 deadline. On 19 January the president of the International Association of Judges Đuro Sessa expressed support for their protest.

WEDNESDAY, 24 January

LJUBLJANA - Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič announced that the planned government bond for domestic retail investors would have an interest rate of 3.4%. The issue of the 3-year bond will take place between 1 and 16 February.

LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob called for a summit next week to discuss the best way to carry out the decision-making process about a second nuclear reactor. The announcement came nearly a week after the Democrats (SDS) filed a motion for a referendum about Krško 2. Energy Minister Bojan Kumer first said it was too early for a referendum, but later backtracked and said he would support an early vote.

LJUBLJANA - Last year was the warmest year on record both in Slovenia and globally, said the Environment Agency as it presented the 2023 weather statistics for Slovenia. Last year, marked by heavy floods, was also Slovenia's third wettest year on record.

LJUBLJANA - The Ljubljana District Court decided that Klemen Kadivec, the chief defendant in the trial against the Slovenian cell of the Kavač Clan, a Montenegrin drug trafficking cartel, who had been declared unfit to stand trial because of a hunger strike, will be tried in absentia. Both the defence and prosecution opposed the decision. Kadivec is protesting solitary confinement, in which he has been since May 2023 for security reasons.

LJUBLJANA - Men represent 73% of information sources in Slovenian media, showed a new research project on gender representation in media, backed by She Knows. Men take up more time and media space and more often appear as experts even when covering female-dominated fields and professions.

THURSDAY, 25 January

NOVO MESTO - Pharma group Krka recorded 5% higher sales revenue last year compared to the year before, at EUR 1.81 billion, which is a new record, preliminary unaudited results show. Net profit was down 14% on 2022 due to foreign exchange losses, and amounted to an estimated EUR 311.2 million. Krka Group increased sales in most markets. Region-wise it generated most sales revenue in eastern Europe, but the figure was down on the year before by 5% to EUR 594 million.

LJUBLJANA - The energy group Gen generated EUR 2.97 billion in revenue last year, a drop of 29% over 2022, but net profit increased substantially, reaching EUR 204.5 million, compared to EUR 23.6 million in 2022. The group generated 3,433 GWh of electricity last year, which accounted for 28% of Slovenia's consumption. It held a nearly 50% market share in household supply and nearly 18% in supply to businesses.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia recorded some 6.2 million tourist arrivals and 16.1 million tourist nights in 2023, which is up by 5.5% and 3.5% year-on-year, respectively, and a new record, the Statistics Office said. Tourist nights were up 2% compared to 2019, the previous record year. Slovenians generated some 4.6 million nights or 28% of the total figure and foreign guests 11.5 million or 72%.

LJUBLJANA - President Nataša Pirc Musar had a phone call with her Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in light of Slovenia's beginning its two-year stint as a non-permanent member on the UN Security Council. The pair discussed humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine and post-war reconstruction, the president's office said. Slovenia supports an initiative for a peace summit at the upcoming second anniversary of the start of the war, Pirc Musar told Zelensky.

LJUBLJANA - An organisation helping foreign workers, which reported last October to law enforcement two Turkish companies building a railway in Slovenia over severe violations of worker rights, said that the government was trying to sweep those violations under the carpet. Despite the NGO's request not to do so, the government decided that applications for work permits for foreign workers working on the rail project will be given priority treatment.