Ljubljana

Mirna Peč – The new bishop of Novo Mesto, Andrej Saje was ordained at a ceremony at the parish church of Mirna Peč on Sunday before he formally takes over from Andrej Glavan next week. Addressing the congregation, Saje noted the great responsibility he is assuming, wishing for fruitful cooperation and dialogue with everyone in the diocese.

Ljubljana – The total debt of Slovenia’s 212 municipalities and their utilities increased by a further EUR 47.5 million last year to EUR 971.2 million, or 2.1% of GDP. Average total debt per capita thus increased to EUR 473 in 2020 from EUR 449 in 2019, a report compiled by the Finance Ministry shows.

Ljubljana – Just over one out of three Slovenian households (36%) had at least one loan or instalment purchase to repay last year, excluding mortgage on their home, and about half reported making just as much to make ends meet without having to borrow or saving anything, according to a report by the Statistics Office.

Ljubljana – The government is meeting this evening to discuss the budgetary documents for 2022 and 2023 which must be sent to parliament by 1 October.

Ljubljana – Slovenia logged 444 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the sixth consecutive day of week-on-week decline in new cases, official data shows. Another five Covid-19 patients have died.

Ljubljana – Preparations for the general election are under way on several fronts in Slovenia, the newspaper Dnevnik says on Saturday. While the crème de la crème of the Slovenian centre-right parties are forming an alliance under the wing of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), the question arises what is happening in the left pole.

Ljubljana – Europe is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the general election in Germany to see who or which coalition will lead the larget European economy in the future, the newspaper Delo says in Saturday’s front-page commentary, headlined Who Will Succeed Angela Merkel.

Osilnica/Ljubljana – The small border municipality Osilnica in the south of the country and government representatives have signed a deal under which the state will finance the completion of a care home for the elderly Osilnica started building in 2004 but put on hold in 2008 due to a shortage of funds.

Ljubljana – The top bodies of three of the four centre-left opposition parties which have finalised an agreement on post-election cooperation unanimously endorsed the document at their respective sessions on Saturday, while the fourth party did so earlier this week.

Ljubljana – Slovenia’s daily coronavirus count increased to 1,005 on Friday after it dropped below 1,000 on Thursday, to 941, after hoovering considerably over 1,000 three consecutive days. Yesterday’s figure is meanwhile over 19% below that from a week ago. The number of hospitalisations dropped below 400 this morning.