Slovenia – education
The country that received early education for all, under the influence of Austria, has a high level of education compared to most areas of the former Yugoslavia. Massive participation in EU education programs supports this. The language of instruction is Slovenian; however, there are bilingual schools for the Hungarian and Italian minorities.
The education system, which is public and free, includes, after a reform from the 1990’s, a pre-school for 3-6-year-olds, which is applied for by 68% (1996), as well as a nine-year primary school for 6-15-year-olds.
Youth education is offered in the four-year general or technical high school, which is applied for by approximately 25% of a youth cohort, and in two-four-year vocational schools, which are applied for by approximately 68% (1996).
The country has two universities; the oldest in Ljubljana was founded in 1919, while the University of Maribor is from 1975. In addition, there are 35 other higher education institutions (1996).
ETYMOLOGY: landed name means “land of slaves” in Slovenian.
OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Slovenia
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: parliamentary republic
CAPITAL CITY: Ljubljana
POPULATION: 2,079,000 (Source: COUNTRYaah)
AREA: 20 151 km²
TOTAL AREA: 20 273 km²
Residents PER KM²: 103.2
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (S): Slovenian 91.1% (official), Serbo-Croatian 4.5%, other or unspecified 4.4% (2002)
RELIGION: Catholics 57.8%, Muslims 2.4%, Orthodox 2.3%, Other Christians 0.9%, Other or Unspecified 36.6% (2002)
NATIONAL DAY: June 25 is Slovenia’s National Day, celebrating the secession of Yugoslavia.
HEAD OF STATE: President Borut Pahor (since 22 December 2012)
PRIME MINISTER: Prime Minister Janez Janša (since 13 March 2020)
COIN: Euro
SYMBOL: Slovenia’s national symbol is the Triglav mountain, and the country’s national colors are white, blue and red.
CURRENCY CODE: EUR
NATIONAL ANTHEM: “Zdravljica” (A bowl)
ENGLISH NAME: Slovenia, Republic of Slovenia
INDEPENDENCE: June 25, 1991 (from Yugoslavia)
POPULATION COMPOSITION: Slovenians 83.1%, Serbs 2%, Croats 1.8%, Bosniaks 1.1%, other or unspecified 12% (2002)
GDP PER residents: 23,296.4 (2019)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 77.1 years, women 83.1 years (2019)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, HDI: 0.902 (2019)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, POSITION: 24 (2019)
GINI COEFFICIENT: 24.2 (2017)
CO EMISSIONS PER residents: 6.2 tons (2019)
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .si
Slovenia is a south-eastern European republic between Austria and Croatia with strong ties to Central Europe. The small country has large landscape variations and is crossed by important traffic connections to the Balkan countries.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Find two-letter abbreviation for each independent country and territory, such as SI which stands for Slovenia.
Slovenia was 1918-1991 was a sub-republic of Yugoslavia. Since independence in 1991, which was internationally recognized the following year, the country has been marked by political stability. Slovenia has been a member of NATO and the EU since 2004 and qualified as the first of the newly admitted, former communist countries to switch to the euro as its official currency on 1 January 2007.
Slovenia – Constitution
The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia dates from 1991. Legislative power lies with a two-chamber parliament. One chamber, the National Assembly, has 90 members who are elected every four years by ordinary, direct election; the right to vote generally takes effect at the age of 18, but can be exercised already at the age of 16 if one has a job. In 2000, the electoral law was changed, introducing a blocking limit of four percent to make it more difficult for small parties to enter. The second chamber, the Council of State, has 40 members elected for five years by the country’s interest groups (economic, social, cultural). The National Assembly makes the country’s laws, while the Government can only propose laws and request that a bill be taken up for new consideration in the National Assembly.
The President is elected by universal suffrage for a term of five years, but the Prime Minister has the actual executive power, appointed by the National Assembly for a term of four years.
Slovenia – religion
The Slovenian constitution separates state and church and guarantees citizens’ religious freedom. The country’s dominant denomination with almost 85% of the population is the Roman Catholic Church with its archbishopric in Ljubljana. Smaller denominations are the Serbian Orthodox Church (approximately 2.5%) and a number of Protestant churches as well as Muslims under the leadership of the Islamic denomination in Sarajevo. Check youremailverifier for Slovenia social condition facts.
Slovenia – economy
Slovenia had a socialist economy as part of Yugoslavia from the late 1940’s to the early 1990’s. During this period, the country, which was predominantly an agricultural country, underwent rapid industrialization with the main emphasis on heavy industry. Among other things. however, due to significant technology transfers from abroad in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Slovenia developed a relatively diversified export structure and the by far richest part of Yugoslavia was measured by GDP per capita. resident.
After independence in 1991, however, Slovenia experienced significant economic problems. The loss of significant outlets in the former Yugoslavia was exacerbated by the civil war, and the introduction of new market economy measures meant declining production and rising unemployment. In 1990-93, unemployment thus rose from around 4% to almost 15%. Inflation was already high because Yugoslavia had pursued a very lenient monetary policy during the 1980’s. In October 1991, Slovenia introduced its own currency, the tolar, which was tied to D-mark. However, high inflation combined with an insufficient foreign exchange reserve meant that the fixed exchange rate policy had to be abandoned in the same year. Tight economic policies, based on fiscal balance and price stability, have subsequently successfully reduced inflation, which in 2005 was just 2.5%. Since 1993, the economy has been growing, but continued increases in productivity have meant that unemployment has not been reduced; it was 10% in 2005.
Slovenia has successfully reoriented its foreign trade with the West. Thus, approximately 2/3 of the total foreign trade in 1998 with the EU; Germany and Italy are by far the largest individual trading partners. In 1993, the first cooperation agreement between Slovenia and the EU was signed, in 1996 the country was associated and in 2004 as the first of the former Yugoslav republics fully member of the EU. The euro was introduced on 1 January 2007. At present, efforts are being made to reduce the state’s role in the economy and in return attract foreign investment. In the years leading up to EU accession, Slovenia sought to achieve closer regional trade relations with the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia through participation in CEFTA, the Central European Free Trade Area.
In 2005, Denmark’s exports to Slovenia amounted to DKK 551 million. DKK, while imports from there were 1124 mill. kr.
Slovenia – mass media
The Slovenian media were among the more open-mouthed in Ex-Yugoslavia, and they played an important role in independence in 1991. In 2005, eight dailies, incl. a sports newspaper. The most influential, the Delo, was founded in 1959 as a body of the Communist Party, but is now independent (circulation 2005 approximately 87,000). The largest is the tabloid newspaper Slovenske novice (grdl. 1991, circulation approximately 100,000). Both newspapers are owned by the same company. The news agency STA was founded in 1991. The state RTV Slovenija has three nationwide radio channels and two national television channels. In addition, there are TV channels for both the Italian and Hungarian minorities. There are a number of private radio and television channels, all of which are advertising-financed; the largest private TV channels are POP TV and Kanal A. The majority of households can receive cable and satellite TV. The media image was in the early 2000’s. characterized by a number of acquisitions in the industry.
Slovenia – literature
Slovenian national literature originated in the territory of present-day Slovenia and in the adjacent Slovenian-speaking areas of Italy and Austria. The oldest evidence of a pre-literary Slovenian written activity, the so-called Freisinger fragments from the late 900’s, are three texts for ecclesiastical use; they are considered one of the oldest Slavic manuscripts ever.
Only with the Reformation did a Slovenian Protestant writing tradition emerge, first and foremost by Primož Trubar (1508-86), who in 1550 published the first Slovenian book, a catechism, printed in Tübingen. The heyday of Slovenian Protestant literature was abruptly interrupted by the Catholic Counter – Reformation around 1600.
Not until the late 1700’s. a written enterprise re-emerged in the spirit of the Enlightenment with the publication of grammars and dictionaries, but also with a few fictional experiments.
Poetry and prose got their first real writer in Valentin Vodnik (1758-1819), and Anton Tomaž Linhart (1756-95) founded the Slovenian drama. The Napoleonic Wars and Prince Metternich’s European restaurant policy put an end to the further development of these literary activities.
Modern Slovenian literature is usually considered to begin in the 1830’s, promoted in the almanac Bien fra Krain by Miha Kastelič (1796-1886), Matija Čop (1797-1835) and the romantic poet France Prešeren (1800-49). A large part of the romantic movement’s efforts were to create a standard Slovenian language.
After 1850, a generation of realistic and later naturalistic prose writers emerged on the literary scene. In the magazine Ljubljana’s bell, founded in 1881 as an advocate of realistic ideas, several prose writers and lyricist Anton Aškerc made their pioneering contribution to Slovenian realism.
Towards the turn of the century, the lyricist and playwright Oton Župančič (1878-1949) emerged as the most significant representative of Slovenian symbolism, while Ivan Cankar early in his writing career turned to prose and drama, characterized by his strong social and political commitment.
The interwar period was marked by vastly different currents and directions: neorealist literature, avant-garde directions in close connection with Italian futurism, and liberal-Catholic currents.
In the partisan literature, authors of widely differing observations participated: the Catholic Edvard Kocbek (1904-81) and the socialists Matej Bor (1913-93) and Josip Vidmar (1895-1992). Vidmar did away with the socially realistic thesis of the idea content as the decisive factor for the artistic value of a work and thus helped to pave the way for the liberalization of Yugoslav cultural life that began in the 1950’s.
With this liberalization, many of the post-war taboos were broken. Mention of the internment of the Muscatatro Communists after the break with the Soviet Union in 1948 had, as long as Josip Broz Tito lived, been banned in the public debate.
The Slovenian author Branko Hofman (1929-91) was the first Yugoslav author to break this taboo with the novel Night to the Morning (1981) and set off an avalanche throughout Yugoslav cultural life.
Slovenian literature outside Slovenia has unfolded in Italian Trieste and Austrian Carinthia. Despite close ties with the mother country, this literature has for most of the post-war period often been a stark contrast to the literature of Slovenia itself.
In Klagenfurt, a number of authors have gathered around the Slovenian magazine Mladje and in particular have expressed the difficulties of maintaining Slovenian culture and language in Austria.
Slovenia – dance
Ritual solo and circle dances (kolo) with simple movements, performed by Shrove Tuesday and weddings, were predominant until the 19th century, when couple dancing from the rest of Central Europe, Austria, pushed forward.
Some of the dances were adapted to the local movement style and given their own names, but the majority retained their original designations, music and choreographic structure.
Dances that are still popular are štajeriš, zibenšrit, šottis as well as variants of mazurka, polka and waltz. Common to the Slovenian dances is the two-part form: in the first part the dancer stomps on the spot, claps his own or the dance partner’s hands or imitates movements from work situations (eg the shoemaker’s), in the second part polka is danced.
The Slovenes in the Rezia area of Italy have preserved a couple dance, rezijanka, where the partners never touch each other while dancing.
Slovenia – music
Music life has been under Western European influence since the Middle Ages. Church music was cultivated in monasteries and seminars with a center in Ljubljana. of the city’s tower blowers.
Baroque and classical followed Italian and Austrian traditions, but after the March Revolution of 1848, a specific national romantic style emerged. The composers after 1945, such as Primož Ramovš (1921-99) and Uroš Krek (1922-2008), have expressed themselves completely in harmony with the modern European spirit.
Folk music is predominantly characterized by major tonality, large interval jumps and multi-voiced male choirs. Alongside this newer, alpine style, older ballads and ritual songs also thrive.
Contemporary instruments are quotes and accordions; in Rezia in Italy, however, Slovenes still dance to violin and three-stringed bass. A special tradition in Slovenia is chimes at the village church festivities.
Slovenia – wine
Slovenia produces approximately 1 mio. hl of wine per year from the country’s 23,000 ha of vineyards, which are mainly located on the borders with Italy, Austria and Hungary. The wines are strongly influenced by the traditions of the neighboring countries; at the town of Ljutomer in NE, dry and fresh white wines are made, while the coastal signs are known for red wines in Italian style. Production is still marked by run-down cooperatives, but many private winemakers now make good wines.
