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Ankara – President Borut Pahor will start a two-day state visit to Turkey on Tuesday at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Bilateral relations and the situation in Ukraine will top the agenda. The situation in the Western Balkans and the Middle East will also be discussed.

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Rober Golob said on Monday he found it scandalous that several petrol stations around the country ran out of fuel on Sunday and today as drivers rushed to service stations in anticipation of Tuesday’s price hike stemming from a new pricing model kicking in.

Brdo pri Kranju – Slovenian scientists and business people living and working abroad came together in Brdo pri Kranju for their annual meeting on Thursday. Government representatives addressing the event underlined the importance of sharing in the knowledge gained abroad and expressed worry about brain drain.

Ljubljana – The new infrastructure minister, Bojan Kumer, announced on Thursday that he and Economy Minister Matjaž Han would appoint a task force on Monday to deal with energy price hikes. “The energy price hikes need to be addressed immediately,” Kumer said as he took over from his predecessor Jernej Vrtovec, adding that the new task force would be in charge of that.

The fifth International Mardin Biennial, featuring works by 40 artists from 24 countries, opened in the eastern province of Mardin on May 20 and will host its visitors until June 20.

Ljubljana – All but one parliamentary party welcomed Slovenia’s offer to accept Ukrainian refugees, although there was some scepticism whether the country has the capacity or would even need to take in between 180,000 and 200,000 as suggested by Interior Minister Aleš Hojs. The opposition also raised unequal treatment of refugees depending on their origin.

Ljubljana – MPs endorsed on Tuesday a government-sponsored act that temporarily increases the scope of temporary or casual work available for pensioners to help the labour market recover in the wake of Covid-19. The government says the proposal will help mitigate labour shortages, whereas a part of the opposition believes the solution comes too late.

Ljubljana – After President Borut Pahor announced he would call a general election for 24 April, this triggered varied reactions from political parties all across the political spectrum. Coalition partners largely welcomed this decision, while opposition parties mostly still favour the increasingly unlikely option of a snap election.

Ljubljana – The centre-left opposition condemned on Friday PM Janez Janša’s response to the visit of a fact-finding mission of the European Parliament, in particular his tweets. These were labelled as harmful and detrimental to Slovenia’s international image. Matej Tonin, the head of the junior coalition New Slovenia (NSi), urged Janša to apologise.

Ljubljana – Four centre-left opposition parties have tabled motions of no confidence in Justice Minister Marjan Dikaučič and Education Minister Simona Kustec. The main charge against Dikaučič is the failure to appoint delegated European prosecutors. Kustec has been accused of failings regarding getting schools ready for the new wave of the pandemic.