STA, 26 January 2021 - A new political movement called Povežimo Slovenijo (Unite Slovenia) has emerged. The initiative is wants to bring together a number of smaller, non-parliamentary parties, groups, local initiatives and individuals of various values and political stances to form a joint slate for the next general elections.

The movement's programme and its cooperation strategy is based on Slovenia's constitution and has been modelled on such projects abroad, most notably in Austria and Switzerland where big-tent pre-election coalitions are frequent.

The initiator and coordinator of the movement is vice president of the Greens Nada Pavšer, who believes that the emerging list could get at least 20% in the next election.

The response so far has been very positive, she told today's press conference presenting the initiative. The Greens head Andrej Čuš thinks the movement will be a success story.

He highlighted that there had been enough negative stories and suggested that the movement would appeal to undecided voters by striving to overcome political polarisation. The movement is to nominate its own candidate for prime minister.

The initiative aims to give a voice to civil society and not only politicians, and back good proposals regardless of their source, he said.

The Greens executive committee and the People's Party (SLS) main committee have already confirmed their cooperation in the initiative, he added.

Marjan Podobnik of the SLS believes that such cooperation could be welcomed by voters who have not been casting their ballots in recent years.

Among a host of public figures and parties that are reportedly discussing cooperation with the movement are the New People's Party of former Maribor mayor Franc Kangler, the list of Celje Mayor Bojan Šrot, Koper Mayor Aleš Bržan's list as well as Zdravko Počivalšek, the leader of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC).

Počivalšek, whose party has been ranking low in opinion polls for months, said in the movement's presentational video that "every act of cooperation within the political centre is beneficial and necessary to reach equilibrium in our political arena".

"The SMC also works on bringing together the liberal centre," he said.

Among those who also featured in the video were the president's adviser and former Constitutional Court judge Ernest Petrič, Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS) head Branko Meh, the head of the Pensioners' Association (ZDUS) Janez Sušnik, head of an inter-municipal association of the blind and visually-impaired of Slovenia Luj Šprohar, musician Oto Pestner, and judoka Lucija Polavder.

The former head of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) Aleksandra Pivec confirmed for RTV Slovenija yesterday that she had discussed potential cooperation with the initiative, however her primary plan remains to form her own party.

At this stage the emerging party is not entering any movement, she said, but it will be willing to cooperate.

STA, 26 January 201 - Two Italians who crashed their car packed with illegal migrants into a police car in September last year have been sentenced to more than two years in prison, after which they will be expelled from the country.

The newspapers Delo, Dnevnik and Slovenske Novice report that Francesco Mandielo, 29, and Salvatore Mascolo, 23, both from Naples, were sentenced to two years and nine months and two years and one month, respectively, by the Ljubljana District Court.

They were both also given a fine of two thousand euro and a ban on re-entering the country for four years as judge Martin Jančar meted out the sentence as proposed by the prosecution, which was the mildest possible and took into account mitigating circumstances.

"The court accepts the defence counsel's argument that the defendants are the smallest wheels in the machinery of organised illegal migration, but it's these small wheels that allow the whole wheelwork to run," the judge was quoted as saying by Dnevnik. He said economic distress did not justify crime.

The pair pleaded guilty, asking for mercy. Their lawyers argued that the pair were but the final link in the chain of a criminal ring smuggling migrants from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Italy.

The pair picked up six migrants - five from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan - on the Slovenian-Croatian border, putting four of them on the back seats and two in the boot.

A police patrol tried to pull them over near Ivančna Gorica, but Mandielo, attempting to avoid the police first scraped the car against the guard rail on the exit from the motorway, and then after several sharp manoeuvres bumped into the police vehicle behind.

The impact left the police officers inside lightly injured.

According to the reports, the migrants paid EUR 4,000 each to be transported from Velika Kladuša in Bosnia-Herzegovina to Italy to the organiser, allegedly a Pakistani.

STA, 25 January -2021 The programming council of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija has appointed Andrej Grah Whatmough the new director general. Currently the chair of the broadcaster's supervisory board, he will succeed Igor Kadunc, who was eliminated in the first round of voting.

Grah Whatmough received 14 votes in the first round of voting on Monday and was then endorsed by the majority on the programming council in the run-off against Natalija Gorščak, the director of the broadcaster's TV division.

The new director had been mentioned as candidate for director general in an unsuccessful attempt to oust Kadunc last year. He will start his four-year term at the end of April.

Having graduated in law in 2008, Grah Whatmough owns a translation and interpreting company and his LinkedIn bio says he works as an independent tax law specialist.

He has been on the broadcaster's supervisory board since 2015 and was originally nominated by the Modern Centre Party (SMC).

STA, 26 January 2021 - Slovenia recorded another 1,652 new coronavirus infections on Monday, when more than 35,000 tests were conducted amid mass testing of teachers ahead of partial school reopening.

Currently, 1,157 people are in hospital, 16 fewer than the day before. The number of patients needing intensive care remained level at 190. 91 patients were discharged from hospital and 27 new deaths were reported.

Yesterday, 1,149 new cases were confirmed in 4,700 PCR tests (positivity rate of 24.4%). Because of testing of teachers ahead of partial reopening of schools and kindergartens, as many as 30,392 rapid tests were also conducted to detect 503 new infections for a positive rate of just 1.7%, said the government's Covid-19 spokesperson Maja Bratuša.

In 20,673 rapid tests among teachers, 278 infections were confirmed by 9pm last night, the Health Ministry said. The positivity rate was thus 1.3%.

Some teachers were tested this morning, as 53,306 pupils from the first three grades of primary school returned to school and 74,630 children returned to kindergartens, according to Education Minister Simona Kustec.

The latest data on Slovenia and coronavirus

STA, 25 January 2020 - After another spray-painting of the Slovenian names on bilingual city limit signs in Austria's Carinthia, Slovenian minority organisations again condemned the incidents and called on the authorities to conduct a systematic and organised campaign to find the perpetrators. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry also expressed concern.

About a week ago, unknown perpetrators spray-painted the Slovenian names on bilingual city limit signs in the municipalities of Bleiburg (Pliberk in Slovenian) and Eberndorf (Dobrla Vas).

Another six signs were vandalised in the same way in Eberndorf last weekend.

Responding on Monday to the latest acts of vandalism, the National Council of Carinthian Slovenians (NSKS) said that these were systemic and well-organised acts are attempts to erase the Slovenian language in the public in Carinthia.

"It seems that we are returning to the past times," it said, adding that it expected from the relevant authorities to conduct an accordingly systematic and organised campaign to find the perpetrators.

The NSKS noted that such acts were inadmissible and subject to criminal prosecution under Austrian legislation. "What we need in Carinthia is a deep and lasting change of paradigm," it added.

The organisation thinks that the perpetrators want to create tension in southern Carinthia ahead of the upcoming local elections in February.

The acts have also been condemned by the Community of Carinthian Slovenians (SKS), whose president Bernard Sadovnik called on the locals to help the police find the perpetrators.

"Despite the acts having not been clarified yet, it is encouraging that the population and political representatives clearly reject such acts of vandalism," he said.

Carinthia Governor Peter Kaiser condemned the acts in a statement on Sunday. "Such behaviour is completely unacceptable for the open society into which we have developed in recent years," he said.

The Slovenian Foreign Ministry expressed concern today, noting it expected the Austrian authorities to find the perpetrators as soon as possible and protect the constitutional rights of the Slovenian community in Carinthia. It also said that diplomatic activities in relation to this were under way.

The acts from week ago have also been strongly condemned by Minister for Slovenians Abroad Helena Jaklitch, while Foreign minister Anže Logar told the Foreign Policy Committee last Wednesday that Slovenia regretted and condemned the incident.

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA: 

If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here

STA, 25 January 2020 - Kindergartens and the first three grades of primary school in Slovenia will open as planned on Tuesday despite additional confirmation that the highly virulent UK variant of coronavirus has been present in Slovenia since the start of the month.

After almost three months of closure, the partial reopening was decreed by the government last week, but the plan was thrown into doubt today when Prime Minister Janez Janša told parliament "we still don't know whether classes in schools will really be re-started on Tuesday."

After confirmation that the UK variant is in Slovenia, he solicited opinions from the Education Ministry and the National Public Health Institute (NIJZ), which both said the reopening may proceed. "Let's help teachers to make sure work is safe," Janša tweeted in the afternoon.

The Education Ministry said in its opinion schools were prepared and classes would be safe, while the NIJZ said its position remained unchanged and noted that it would carefully monitor the situation at educational institutions and "propose further measures at any sign of a deteriorating epidemiological situation".

All efforts now need to be invested in managing the epidemic at the national level and making sure the school environment is safe for children and staff. "If restrictions need to be tightened, other potential transmission locations should be closed first," the NIJZ said.

Slovenia conducted mass testing today of all teachers who will return to in-person teaching tomorrow.

STA, 25 January 2020 - Mass testing of teachers and other personnel in education is under way in Slovenia on Monday in the largest such testing operation yet as kindergartens and the first three grades of primary school are set to reopen in nine of Slovenia's 12 regions on Tuesday, with a final decision due in the afternoon.

No major disruption is reported in what is the largest single-day testing for coronavirus so far.

Some kindergarten and school staff are being tested in their institutions or in community health centres, while testing for more than 3,000 employees of kindergartens and primary schools in the capital is organised at the Ljubljana fairgrounds.

Gregor Pečan, the head of the Association of Head Teachers, told the STA that while there were no official responses from his colleagues around the country, while some staff had already expressed their disagreement with the mandatory testing beforehand.

"Procedures are running smoothly, and we have not had a positive case so far," said the head teacher of the primary school in Dol pri Ljubljani for the school in question, where around 90 employees are to return to work tomorrow.

In the Ljubljana municipality, kindergarten and primary school staff are being tested since the early morning, and 3,260 of them are expected to be tested by 8pm.

Around 1,100 persons were tested in the first four hours, and only three infections were confirmed, testing coordinator Uroš Zafošnik of the Ljubljana Community Health Centre told the STA. The testing involving around 50 medical staff runs smoothly as the employees had been assigned precise time slots.

Around 800 teachers and other employees in the 20 primary schools in Maribor will start to be tested in the early afternoon.

"The experiences are different, of course, as some head teachers are reporting certain problems, but these are individual cases," Mojca Kirbiš, a representative of head teachers in Maribor, said.

Helena Ocvirk of the Olga Meglič primary school in Ptuj said that employees had had some reservations about the testing at first, but later accepted the measure as it was mandatory for those who wanted to work with children in-person.

Health Ministry State Secretary Alenka Forte told the press that today's testing was the "largest testing in a single day so far", adding that it was a major organisational and logistic challenge.

According to Forte, no complications with the mass testing with rapid antigen tests have been reported so far.

Testing will have to be repeated every seven days, while the staff who have recovered from Covid-19 and those who had been infected more than three weeks ago need not to be tested.

Around 53,000 primary school pupils and almost 75,000 kindergarten children are expected to return to classrooms tomorrow, after in-person classes for special needs children started three weeks ago.

However, this is still not certain as Prime Minister Janez Janša, speaking in parliament today, put the reopening into doubt, saying that "we still don't know whether classes in schools will really be re-started on Tuesday."

Janša said he expected the opinion from the Education Ministry, the National Public Health Institute and the government Covid-19 advisory team on the matter by 4pm.

The prime minister explained that the issue remained open because of the discovery of the highly transmissible UK coronavirus variant in Slovenia. Studies in the UK show that it spreads fast among children, he added.

STA, 24 January 2021 - The Slovenian ski resort of Rogla will host a part of this year's Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships, with the parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom disciplines to be held there on 1 and 2 March.

The Slovenian Ski Association has announced that Rogla will host this segment of the snowboarding competitions of the championship after the original hosts in China cancelled the event, scheduled for February, altogether.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) then split the event into several segments and determining new hosts, awarding the parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom to Rogla.

This will be the first time that the resort in north-eastern Slovenia will host the world championship in snowboarding. It will also host a World Cup event on 6 March.

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA: 

If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here