STA, 17 August 2020 - Thirteen new cases of SARS-Cov-2 were confirmed in 393 tests in Slovenia on Sunday, show data released by the government. No deaths were reported. The total number of cases in Slovenia reached 2,429 with 248 of them active infections, according to national tracker covid-19.sledilnik. State and health care reps are scheduled to meet this afternoon.

Nineteen people were in hospital on Sunday with three requiring intensive care. The biggest increase in infections, 4, was detected in Ljubljana, and there were two new cases in Novo Mesto, where the virus was confirmed last week in a local nursing home.

Covid-19.sledilnik data also show that four of the newly confirmed cases were among the age group of 35-44, three in the 15-24 age group, and two each in the age groups 25-34 and 55-64. One case was an infant younger than four.

After a large number of cases confirmed last week was in people who returned from Croatia, a popular summer destination for Slovenians, Health Minister Tomaž Gantar said on Monday that he was scheduled to meet representatives of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) in the afternoon, and Prime Minister Janez Janša after that.

No changes yet for Croatia

Talking to the press on a different occasion, Gantar would not discuss any detail, but said he personally would like for Slovenia to introduce mandatory quarantine for those returning from Croatia, but only in a few days, so as to give people an opportunity to return.

Imposing quarantine any sooner would mean tens of thousands of people in quarantine, which, Gantar says, is infeasible.

"We have to weigh our options and make a decision fast, considering that the situation is getting worse and that there is a threat of imported cases, mostly from Croatia," said Gantar. "A decision must be made before school starts."

The minister called on those returning from Croatia to self-isolate if at all possible, appealing especially to health care and retirement home staff.

He also advised anybody still planning a vacation to avoid Croatia. "In this case, exposure is literally irresponsible, you'd be putting at risk not only yourself and your closest family members but also your colleagues and relatives."

The latest statistics on coronavirus and Slovenia, and the latest police news on red, green and yellow list countries. All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia

STA, 17 August 2020 - A study has shown that an endangered subspecies of the common dolphin visited the Gulf of Trieste, which includes the bulk of Slovenian territorial waters, between 2009 and 2012, after a long period of absence due to systematic culling and lack of food.

The marine mammal association Morigenos, which conducted the study, notes that the appearances of the subspecies in the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean used to be something completely usual.

But since the 1970s, it has become so rare that it was labelled as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

According to the association, this was most probably owing to deliberate and systematic killing of the animal in the mid-1950s.

"At the time, Italy and the former Yugoslavia were paying rewards for each dolphin killed, because they were treated as pests who compete for fish with the fisheries sector," Morigenos said in a press release on Monday.

An additional possible cause for the decline of its population was the lack of food due to over-fishing and overall degradation of the marine environment.

Related: Slovenian Team Finds Dolphins Sharing Bay Based on Time, Not Space

While the last large groups of the common dolphin were seen in the Gulf of Trieste in the 1940s, Morigenos has come up with some new findings based on direct observations and found carcasses.

The association has established by means of photo identification of the dorsal fin that at least four specimens appeared in Slovenian territorial waters between 2009 and 2012.

While the common bottlenose dolphin is constantly present in the Gulf of Trieste, the common dolphin remains a rare species in the Northern Adriatic and chances for its return in large numbers are rather slim.

"Researchers record no increase in the number or sightings anywhere in the Mediterranean," said Morigenos, which hopes the study will encourage reporting on future cases to get better insight in the occurrence of the common dolphin in the Adriatic Sea.

"Large marine predators are important for healthy ecosystems and in the long run they are beneficial for the fisheries sector and not harmful," the association concluded.

You can learn more about the work of Morigenos here, and also read the full study, Occurrence of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in the Gulf of Trieste and the northern Adriatic Sea, by Tilen Genov, Polona Kotnjek and Tina Centrih

STA, 17 August 2020 - Slovenia celebrates Prekmurje Reunification Day on Monday, a national holiday marking the day when the country's eastern-most region was united with the rest of the nation after more than a millennium. The main ceremony was held on Sunday at the monument in Murska Sobota that was unveiled at last year's 100th anniversary of the reunification.

Prekmurje was united with the rest of the nation after World War I and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Located east of the river Mura, Prekmurje was the only territory the Slovenian nation gained at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

For nearly a thousand years, Prekmurje had been a part of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the remaining Slovenian lands were under Austrian rule.

When the Hapsburg family, the rulers of Austria, took over Hungary in the 16th century, Prekmurje still remained under the Hungarian part of the monarchy, separate from the rest of what is now Slovenia.

The peace conference that followed World War I decided that Prekmurje become a part of the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 17 August 1919.

The royal military occupied the region on 12 August and five days later, the civil authorities took over.

This year the ceremony honouring these events was held on the eve of the holiday with writer Dušan Šarotar as the keynote speaker and a cultural programme celebrating the distinct dialect of the region.

Šarotar refrained from the conventional reflections about the anniversary, about the history and situation of Prekmurje, deciding instead to talk about poetry, about stories, about the transience of everything and about immortality. He said poetry helps come closer to a type of truth that can never really be accessed or uttered.

Marjan Farič, the head of the Prekmurje association of General Maister, which organised the event, on the other hand stressed that this year also marks the 100th anniversary since the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, which set the border between the independent Hungarian state and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

With the treaty, Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory, but a part of the Slovenian population was also left in Hungary, living until this day along the Raba river.

Ceremonies were also held yesterday in Beltinci and Črenšovci. President Borut Pahor laid a wreath to the monument of Jožef Klekl Senior, an active proponent of the independence of Slovenians in Hungary, and addressed an event held in front of his house.

Prime Minister Janez Janša wrote on the occasion of the holiday that "due to people who understood the historic context of the times in the nation's history, we are masters on our own soil today".

"In the present moment, even if the circumstances and the challenges are different, the essence stays the same. Only united and connected in the joint desire and efforts for the prosperity of the homeland are we strong as individuals and as a nation," Janša wrote.

President Pahor also addressed citizens at the Presidential Palace today, and the honorary guard of the Slovenian Armed Forces will be lined up in front of the building all day.

V Predsedniški palači je potekal dan odprtih vrat ob državnem prazniku združitve prekmurskih Slovencev z matičnim narodom. pic.twitter.com/L5AxCwGSRs

— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) August 17, 2020

Pahor, who said the world should change peacefully now in contrast to 100 years ago when it was shaped by war, stressed the importance of celebrating anniversaries of historic events in a spirit of harmony and tolerance.

He argued the world is more divided today than it used to be. Worrying processes of political discord are also seen within countries, Pahor said, adding it must not be allowed, in Slovenia as well as elswehere in the world, that this lead to divisons and conflict.

Another development marking Prekmurje Reunification Day is an emerging Prekmurje square just off the centre of the capital.

Situated along the Ljubljanica river close the Ambrož square, the location is to get a monument dedicated to the reunification. The monument, consisting of about 340 flower pot-like little sculptures, will be the work of sculptor Zoran Srdić Janežič.

Prekmurje Reunification Day is celebrated in Slovenia since 2006. Since 2009, a national ceremony is held every five years, while in the years in between local municipalities organise the celebration.

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:

15 coronavirus infections confirmed on Saturday in 382 tests

LJUBLJANA - A total of 382 tests for the new coronavirus were performed in Slovenia on Saturday, with 15 new cases confirmed, while no person died of Covid-19, the government said. A total of 17 persons were hospitalised for Covid-19 yesterday, and four of them required intensive care. The death toll remains at 129. Radio Slovenija reported that government Covid-19 spokesman Jelko Kacin said that at least eight infections had been imported, while the sources of the other infections were being investigated. "In Slovenia, we will wait until Tuesday, when we will see the results of Monday's testing. If the regime in night clubs does not change, we will need to limit the intake from Croatia in one way or another," he added.

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

STA, 15 August 2020 - The tourism vouchers have made for a good season in Gorenjska, one of Slovenia's prime tourism regions with its Alpine lakes of Bled and Bohinj and the mountain centre of Kranjska Gora. Tourism officials say domestic guests have almost fully offset the drop in foreign tourists, an exception being Bled where some hotels have remained closed.

According to the director of the Kranjska Gora Tourist Board Blaž Veber, capacities in the Upper Sava Valley in the north-west of the country are almost fully booked. Some vacancies remain in camps and in mountain huts since the weather has been a bit capricious this year.

Veber hopes the voucher system will be continued into next year, "since we know that the global situation is still very critical, that new hotspots are emerging and that things will not quickly get back to what they were before 9 March".

As many as 90% of the guests in Kranjska Gora this year have been Slovenians. Many have also been coming only for one-day trips, a development that has been observed for lake Bohinj as well, where this is being stimulated with more frequent and cheaper bus lines.

The director of Tourism Bohinj Klemen Langus said that capacities are 90% or 95% full and that is seems that July and August will see similar figures as last year after only 30% of last year's performance was recorded in June before the state-subsidised vouchers were introduced.

As many Slovenian only come for a one-day hike or a swim, domestic guests have been less dominant in accommodation facilities, but they have nonetheless been accounting for 60% to 65% of overnight stays.

Slovenian guest have meanwhile traditionally been a very small minority at Bled, where they usually account for only 5% of overnight stays.

Some hotels have remained closed this year, while the open ones have seen 70% to 80% of their capacities filled. Private room providers and the camping and glamping sites have on there been happy with the figures.

"Given the situation, we are fairly happy with the visit in August," Romana Purkart of Tourism Bled explained. July, with 60% of capacities filled, was much better than June but it cannot compare to last year, she added

More on Slovenia’s tourism vouchers

This year marks the 250^th anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Tartini, the Piran-born violinist and composer whose namesake square is the focus of much activity in the town. The 19^th Tartini Festival is thus a special one, with a program that stretches from the man himself to the present day, from Slovenia to beyond. What’s more, Tartini’s original violin will be taken out of the Maritime Museum and played – although note this is not the Stradivarius the Piran composer was the first owner of, which has gone down in history as the Lipinski.

Tartini Square was once part of the sea, as in this photo from sometime in the late 19th century (source: Wikipedia). More old photos of the square.

With the exception of the opening night on August 20 – which is in St. George's Church in Piran – all the concerts will take place outdoors. The historical ambiance of the Slovenian coast, with its Venetian style, thus provides the backdrop to the performances at Piran’s Minorite Monastery (Minoritski samostan sv. Frančiška v Piranu) and Koper’s Praetorian Palace (Atrij Pretorske palace), the beautiful architecture just the most visible aspect of the area’s rich cultural heritage.

Since Tartini’s instrument was the violin the program features outstanding European violinists performing in various ensembles. The opening concert, on August 20, 2020, will feature the Venice Baroque Orchestra and violinist Giuliano Carmignola.

The program then continues with performances from artists such as Isabelle van Keulen, Giorgio Fava, I Solisti Veneti, Paolo Perrone, David Plantier, and László Paulik – with the full schedule and tickets on the Tartini Festival 2020 website.

Moreover, the Tartini Festival’s own ensemble, Il Terzo Suono, will once again be performing baroque music on period instruments and aiming for historically correct interpretations, as seen and heard in the videos accompanying this story.

In addition to established artists, the festival also supports the future of Slovenian music with workshops, masterclasses and the opportunity to gain experience of playing live. The Tartini Junior is supported by the Municipality of Koper.

Check out the website or Facebook page, and find another great reason to visit the small but perfectly formed Slovenian coast.

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:

32 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Friday, no deaths

LJUBLJANA - 32 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 were confirmed in 1,034 tests on Friday, according to the most recent data from the government. The number of new cases is lower by five compared to the four-month record seen on Thursday. As many new cases this week were holidaymakers returning from Croatia, Slovenia is thinking about mandatory quarantine. On Thursday, out of the 37 confirmed cases, 22 were from Croatia, of them 20 among youngsters who partied at a popular party beach on the island of Pag, Milan Krek, the head of the NIJZ told the STA.

Cardinal Rode praises reconciliation acts by President Pahor and PM Janša

BREZJE - Cardinal Franc Rode, who has often been vocal in his criticism of the Slovenian state in the past, praised President Borut Pahor and Prime Minister Janez Janša for their efforts for national reconciliation, to overcome divisions stemming from World War II. "We waited a long time for a statesman with the courage and understanding" that the state leadership is the only player of reconciliation, being the successor of the leadership of the former Yugoslavia. Rode said this finally happened this June, when Pahor and Janša together laid wreaths at a Homeguard cemetery and then honoured the memory of Partisans killed by the Homeguard.

Slovenian Christians celebrating Assumption Day

BREZJE/LJUBLJANA - Special masses were held around the country to mark the Feast of the Assumption, one of the main Christian holidays and a national holiday in Slovenia since 1992. Marked by coronavirus measures, the ceremonies drew less people than usually, with the main mass attended by some 3,000 believers, 2,000 less than last year. The main celebration of the Assumption is traditionally held at the Brezje Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, one of Slovenia's holiest and most popular pilgrimage sites, where mass was given by Cardinal Franc Rode along with Ljubljana Archbishop Stanislav Zore.

Alpine destination Gorenjska doing well due to tourism vouchers

LJUBLJANA - The tourism vouchers have made for a good season in Gorenjska, one of Slovenia's prime tourism regions with its Alpine lakes of Bled and Bohinj and the mountain centre of Kranjska Gora. Tourism officials say domestic guests have almost fully offset the drop in foreign tourists, an exception being Bled where some hotels have remained closed. According to the director of the Kranjska Gora Tourist Board Blaž Veber, capacities in the Upper Sava Valley in the north-west of the country are almost fully booked. Some vacancies remain in camps and in mountain huts since the weather has been a bit capricious this year.

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

What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.

If you’d like to keep up on the daily headlines then follow those here, or get all our stories in your feed on Facebook.

FRIDAY, 7 August
        LJUBLJANA - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs was reported to have requested a revision of certain already closed cases handled by the National Bureau of Investigation, at least three of which refer to high-profile cases with political implications. Jurists as well as police unions warned about the potential for abuse, but the minister insisted the move was within his powers. The police leadership said the reviews will be carried out as requested.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia added Belgium and several other countries to its red list of countries, which signals high risk in terms of coronavirus contagion. The Czech Republic, Malta, Switzerland and three Spanish administrative units were meanwhile from the green list of safe countries and demoted to yellow.
        IZOLA/LJUBLJANA - Anti-government protests continued for the 16th straight Friday in Ljubljana, this time targeting the handling of coronavirus outbreaks at care homes. Meanwhile, dozens took to the streets in Izola following the reports that the coastal town had paid for two hotel rooms for Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's exports were down 4.2% year-on-year in June, while imports decreased by 5.1%. The decreases for the first half of the year were 5.6% and 10.3% respectively, the Statistics Office said.
        LJUBLJANA - Preliminary data by the Surveying and Mapping Authority indicated a 40% drop in the number of property transactions in the first half of 2020. Prices of used flats meanwhile continued to grow, increasing by 3% since the end of 2019.

SATURDAY, 8 August
        LJUBLJANA - The government allocated EUR 200,000 in emergency humanitarian aid to Lebanon, while the Defence Ministry sent a humanitarian aid coordinator to the country as part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
        LJUBLJANA - Mitja Leskovar, the titular archbishop of Beneventum and apostolic nuncio to Iraq, received his episcopal consecration at the Ljubljana Cathedral. Leskovar, a Slovenian priest who has been with the Vatican's diplomatic service for nearly two decades, was appointed the apostolic nuncio to Iraq two months ago.

SUNDAY, 9 August
        PARIS, France - Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič of the Dutch team Team Jumbo-Visma won the three-stage Tour de l'Ain race in what was seen as a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France. Roglič finished second in the first stage and won the remaining two stages.

MONDAY, 10 August
        LJUBLJANA - In an unprecedented rebellion against a party leader, the deputy group of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) urged Aleksandra Pivec to resign as DeSUS leader after she failed to provide adequate explanations about a series of media revelations that suggested she mixed official business with private affairs. Pivec, who was subsequently disavowed by the leader of the party's council, said she would take some time to think about her next moves.
        LJUBLJANA - The Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) expressed opposition to the planned changes to media legislation, especially if the Culture Ministry does not provide sound arguments for its solutions based on expert analysis. The most problematic aspect of the package is the change to the media law which tasks RTV Slovenija to transfer a share of licence fee funds to other media outlets.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's industrial output grew for the second straight month in June, expanding by 4.3% from May. However, it was still 12.1% lower year-on-year, data from the Statistics Office show. The index for the first half of the year was 10.1% down year-on-year.
        LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian railways operator generated a net profit of EUR 35 million on EUR 601 million in revenue for 2019, with EBITDA at EUR 87 million and EBIT at EUR 42 million, according to a revised business report for 2019.
        
TUESDAY, 11 August
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia formally submitted its application for financial support as part of the European instrument for temporary support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency (SURE). Slovenia would like to spent the money to provide support to furloughed workers, enable short-time work, basic income, state-covered social contributions for the self-employed and other groups.
        ILIRSKA BISTRICA - Interior Ministry State Secretary Franc Kangler met his Croatian counterpart Terezija Gras for talks focussed on cooperation in efforts to prevent illegal crossings of the border. He said that Slovenia supported Croatia's accession to the Schengen zone because this would help prevent illegal migration at the EU's external border.
        LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor received Austrian MP Olga Voglauer, a member of the Slovenian ethnic minority in Carinthia, ahead of the centenary of the plebiscite in Carinthia. The pair shared the view that the upcoming anniversary was an opportunity to improve the position of the minority.
        BRDO PRI KRANJU - The Slovenian Football Association (NZS) decided to postpone the start of the new premier league season from 12 to 22 August as three more players tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 after part of obligatory testing. All three positive players come from Ljubljana's Olimpija, which became the third premiere league club with positive cases.

WEDNESDAY, 12 August
        LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Anže Logar called for a strong and united EU response to the situation in Belarus in the wake of violence against protesters who refuse to recognise Alexander Lukashenko's re-election. Logar made the appeal in a letter to his German and Portuguese counterparts, Heiko Mass and Augusto Santos Silva, whose countries form the EU trio presidency with Slovenia.
        LJUBLJANA - Supreme Court vice-president Miodrag Đorđević temporary suspended district court judge Zvjezdan Radonjić over several grave disciplinary breaches. Radonjić, who has accused other judges of accepting bribes and claimed pressure had been exerted on him in a high-profile case, has been a vocal critic of the Slovenian judiciary. He made headlines as the presiding judge in the case of the 2014 murder of Chemistry Institute boss Janko Jamnik.
        LJUBLJANA - Slavko Koroš was reassigned to another "appropriate" senior post in the police force after he served as the deputy director of the Criminal Police Department. The police said the planned reassignment was not related to the opinions Koroš had expressed as the head of the Association of Criminal Police Officers.
        
THURSDAY, 13 August
        BLED - Slovenia and the US signed a joint declaration on safety of 5G networks as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid a visit. Pompeo said the tide was turning against the Chinese Communist Party, which is trying to control people and other economies. The declaration excludes "untrusted vendors" from 5G networks, which will "benefit the people of this country and all of us who share information across complex network systems".
        BLED - Prime Minister Janez Janša called for a new election in Belarus under the presence of international observers as the only solution to the situation in Belarus, an approach also supported by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he visited Slovenia. "The only peaceful solution to the current crisis in Belarus is to repeat elections under the strong presence of international observation missions," Janša said.
        LJUBLJANA - The NLB Group generated EUR 73.7 million in net profit in the first half of the year, a decrease of EUR 20.7 million or 22% year-on-year. The group's operations were affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, but the supervisory board said that despite impairments and provisions the group's operations were stable and profitable.
        LJUBLJANA - After remaining stable at a fairly low level, coronavirus infections in Slovenia spiked with 31 cases reported for Tuesday and 29 for Wednesday, for a total of 109 in a week. Many of the new cases were in holidaymakers returning from Croatian, promoting health authorities to suggest stricter measures may have to be introduced on the border, including potentially mandatory quarantine for arrivals from Croatia.

All our posts in this series are here

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 13 August 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Government creating atmosphere of hate

STA, 14 August 2020 - The left-wing magazine Mladina speaks out against hate speech, insults and an atmosphere of hatred that it says is being fuelled by the current government and coalition, a situation its editor says is worse than any economic crisis or the worst of the Communist era.

Grega Repovž, the editor-in-chief, argues in the latest edition that the review ordered by Interior Minister Aleš Hojs of some of the police investigations that have already been closed is yet another attempt to smear political opponents of the ruling coalition and two media outlets, POP TV and Mladina.

If there was "a shred of evidence" about the allegations of abuse of the dominant position by the broadcaster Pro Plus or about the money from public procurement of stents allegedly being siphoned off to Mladina, Repovž does not doubt investigators and prosecutors would have filed charges a long time ago, if only in order to get a conclusion in court.

"However, there has been no such evidence, the two stories are political fabrications, they have done enough damage to both media outlets because they are intriguing just enough to sow doubt in people. The aim of SDS leader Janša and Minister Hojs remains to impact on the reputation of the media by repeating those untruths."

However, Repovž says that no one is spared the insult or a smear campaign as long as they dare express criticism or a different opinion in public. As one example he offers the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, whose news programme editor Manica Janežič Ambrožič has shown on main news but a glimpse of the base insults she and other journalists are subject to on a daily basis.

"What is happening today is violence against society that is being committed by the ruling coalition of the SDS, SMC, NSi and DeSUS with the abetting of Zmago Jelinčič's nationalists (...) It is worse than any economic crisis."

Repovž argues that all the coalition partners take the blame for the level society has sunk to, no matter if they point their fingers at each other or at the senior coalition Democratic Party (SDS).

"This level of yours is an attack on (...) everything we wanted of this country, it is an attack on its formation, on a democratic and enlightened state that is supposed to unify (...)

"You are turning this society into a society of beasts. Does anyone truly believes that once you have conquered everything you aimed for, once you demolish all the systems, smear and humiliate the last civil servant, teacher, journalist and politician who will not humour you in your politically-motivated trials, a morning will break when it all goes back to normal, when we become people again?

"It is conduct not committed by the Slovenian Communists in the worst of times. And how many years it took us to pick ourselves up from that system and its errors? There are still traces of that history throughout society."

Demokracija: Conspiracy against Pivec

STA, 13 August 2020 – The right-wing Demokracija magazine argues in Thursday's commentary that the accusations against Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) leader Aleksandra Pivec are in fact an attack by proxy on Prime Minister Janez Janša and the entire government, as part of a conspiracy between leftist parties and the mainstream media.

"The hysterical and bizarre screaming by the left opposition and the mainstream media has one goal only: after they failed with the fabricated scandal with [Economy Minister] Zdravko Počivalšek and masks, Pivec is a handy target for an attack on Janez Janša and the centre-right government, which must collapse no matter the cost," the paper says in Media Mafia on Steroids.

"The DeSUS president is just collateral damage. If she was not, she would have been 'manhandled' every day over the SRIPT project. But she was not, because she was a part of the left coalition at the time.

"It is surprising and utterly fascinating how many negative traits the dominant media have suddenly discovered in Pivec. That is why what they are doing with their staged shows is a paranoid attack orchestrated with the left, it is by no means investigative journalism," editor-in-chief Jože Biščak says.

The commentator speaks about "mass hysteria" driven by the realisation that fewer and fewer people are buying this. Their only chance therefore is to scream and "increase the dose of lying steroids, but in the end this will lead to a collapse of their depraved philosophy".

Everything that is not theirs is labelled as a rightist conspiracy, but this is "a figment of their imagination, of a sick mind". There is no such rightist conspiracy, but there is a very tangible leftist conspiracy.

The media "no longer serves justice and the truth, this is why it is the job of (good) people to prevent the media mafia from continuing to make Slovenia their home," the paper concludes.

All our posts in this series are here

STA, 15 August 2020 - Special masses were held around the country on Saturday to mark the Feast of the Assumption, one of the main Christian holidays and a national holiday in Slovenia since 1992. Marked by coronavirus measures, the ceremonies drew less people than usually, with the main mass attended by some 3,000 believers, 2,000 less than last year.

 There are several hundred churches in Slovenia devoted to the Virgin Mary and several of them, mostly older ones, especially to Mary's "assumption of body and soul into heavenly glory".

Slovenian bishops symbolically entrusted the Slovenian nation into Mary's hands in 1992 and that year 15 August also became a bank holiday, marked by pilgrimages.

The main celebration of the Assumption is traditionally held at the Brezje Basilica of Mary Help of Christians (Marija Pomagaj Brezje), one of Slovenia's holiest and most popular pilgrimage sites, where mass was given by Cardinal Franc Rode along with Ljubljana Archbishop Stanislav Zore.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the naming of Brezje as the Slovenian National Shrine Mary Help of Christians.

Holy masses, mostly delivered by Slovenian bishops, were held today at the majority of the main sites of Marian devotion in the country, including at the Basilica of the Virgin Protectress in the village of Ptujska Gora, another popular pilgrimage site. Maribor Archbishop Alojzij Cvikl gave mass there.

In Kranj, mass was delivered by the titular archbishop of Beneventum and apostolic nuncio to Iraq Mitja Leskovar, while retired Ljubljana Archbishop Anton Stres addressed worshippers at the Church of St Mary at Svete Gore near Bistrica of Sotli.

The ceremonies were adjusted to the epidemiological situation and measures aiming to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, with many of the masses, including at Brezje and Ptujska Gora, held outdoors.

The Slovenian Bishops' Conference has called for the observing of instructions issued by Slovenian bishops and in place since 21 July 2020. Priests and worshippers are urged to respect the 1.5-metre gap, disinfect their hands and use protective masks indoors. Traditional processions and fairs held at some locations have been cancelled.

The elderly, people with health conditions and all belonging to risk groups have been invited to attend holy mass in their home parish or tune in via TV, the Bishops' Conference told the STA.