Weekly Review of Events Involving Slovenia from 6 to 12 July

Ljubljana, 13 July - The week before the Slovene parliament's summer recess and the onset of the silly season was lively on all fronts. While President Milan Kucan spent the week touring Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine in a bid to forge stronger political and economic ties, Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek paid an official visit to Iceland, attended the meeting of the Vilnius group of NATO candidates, and managed to keep the political scene in Slovenia in a stir, as he announced he would not step down as prime minister before taking part in the presidential elections in November, but rather stay on until after the elections, in order to bring to an end the "European story". His decision was not met with great approval, however, he won considerably sympathy by naming Finance Minister Anton Rop as his successor at the rudder of the government, provided that he steps down in the first place. Despite all the turmoil, the week was still heavily under the impression of the visit of the Tibetan Dalai Lama, who finished his visit to Slovenia with a talk on the power of compassion to a large crowd gathered in the Ljubljana Tivoli Park.