MARIBOR

Young artists will take centre stage in a new gallery in Maribor, Slovenia's second largest city, that opened on 17 March. The first exhibition, by Iva Ferlinc, is entitled Transitions.

The Hungarian banking group OTP has received clearance from the Slovenian market regulator to take over NKBM, Slovenia's second largest bank, and create what it says will be the largest bank in the country.

The Bank Assets Management Company (BAMC), Slovenia’s bad bank, will be wounded up come the new year, less than a decade after playing a key role in a major bank bailout. Its remaining assets, estimated at half a billion euros, will be transferred to Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH), the state assets custodian.

Ljubljana, 23 October – Anže Logar, the conservative former foreign minister, won 34% of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election in Slovenia and will face lawyer Nataša Pirc Musar in the 13 November run-off after she picked 27%. Being limited to two terms, incumbent Borut Pahor could not run again.

Maribor – Lumar, a Maribor-based maker of prefabricated energy-efficient homes, generated a record EUR 19.2 million in revenue in 2021 and finsihed the year with a net profit of EUR 1.2 million, just under the 2020 figure.

Maribor – Mohammad Dawood Rezai left his home in Afghanistan at the age of 14. He could have hardly imagined then that almost seven years on his goal would be to appear in the Olympic boxing tournament for Slovenia, the country he had not heard of before arriving here in February 2016.

Ljubljana – The coalition Social Democrats (SD) will not field their own candidate in the 23 October presidential election and the party will also not endorse any of the candidates running, the SD presidency decided on Monday. SD leader Tanja Fajon said the party might decide to endorse a candidate in a potential run-off.

Ljubljana – Ljubljana and Maribor are hosting the 12th iteration of the International Translation Seminar of Slovenian Literature until 20 August. Eleven translators from nine countries are taking part.

Maribor – A van with Austrian licence plates and driven by a Syrian citizen was transporting 17 illegal migrants when pulled over by Slovenian police on the motorway in Pomurje, north-east, on Tuesday on suspicion of transporting illegal migrants.

Trieste – A commemoration was held on Wednesday evening at the National Hall in Trieste, Italy, to pay respects to late Slovenian author Boris Pahor, who died aged 108 in his native Trieste on Monday. He will be laid to rest on Tuesday at St Ana Cemetery in Trieste.