Weekly Review of Events Involving Slovenia from 3 to 9 January

Ljubljana, 10 January - Two political mainstays dominated the domestic scene this week - relations with Croatia and the erased. After the appointment of a new Croatian cabinet, led by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, the two countries have increased efforts to finally wrap up disputed issues that have plagued bilateral relations for a decade. Harsh words have made way to tones of appeasement. The opposite is true of the erased. In what commentators have been describing as a legal mess, opposition and coalition parties are at loggerheads over how to rectify injustices committed when nearly 20,000 people were erased from the population registry. Tensions have been increasing, but the Constitutional Court has provided some relief, ordering that procedures leading to the referendum on the technicalities act on the erased - scheduled for 15 February - be frozen until the justices reach a final verdict in two weeks. This gives politicians much needed time to try and find a solution acceptable for all.