France

Ljubljana – Culture Day, a public holiday marking the anniversary of the death of poet France Prešeren (1800-1849), will be celebrated in Slovenia on Tuesday in a limited form, as there will be no traditional event at Prešeren’s birth house in Vrba, and the recital of Prešeren’s poetry will be broadcast on the radio.

Ljubljana/Kranj/Vrba – Despite restrictions limiting gatherings and the cancellation of several long-standing events, Slovenians flocked to cultural institutions and points of interest on Tuesday to celebrate Culture Day, a public holiday in memory of the great Romantic poet France Prešeren.

Trieste – Slovenian literary historian and academician Boris Paternu died in the Italian city of Trieste at the age of 95 on Friday, the Primorski Dnevnik newspaper reported. His expertise was Slovenian literature of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, while he also extensively studied the poetry of Slovenia’s greatest poet France Prešeren.

The Serbian team defeated France 63-54 in the Women's EuroBasket final in Valencia in Spain on Sunday to win the European championship for a second time, after a six-year gap.

France had been widely tipped as likely winners, but Serbia's coach Marina Maljkovic said after the victory that her team deserved the trophy.

Ljubljana – The celebrations of the 30 years of Slovenia’s sovereignty and independence will culminate with the main national ceremony on Statehood Day on Friday, 25 June, in memory of the day in 1991 when the Slovenian parliament passed several key documents for the country to leave the former Yugoslavia and become fully independent.

Ljubljana – Janez Janša won another term at the helm of the Democratic Party (SDS) at a party congress in Slovenske Konjice on Saturday. He was endorsed by 650 of the 656 delegates as the only candidate for party head.

Ljubljana – Slovenia took key steps leading to its independence in June 1991. The then assembly passed the final major independence laws and three crucial documents to create the legal basis that would allow the country to declare its independence and sovereignty at a ceremony in Ljubljana’s Republic Square on 26 June 1991.

Ljubljana – President Borut Pahor hosted the annual Culture Day event in Presidential Palace on Monday, receiving this year’s Prešeren Prize and Prešeren Fund Prize recipients. Pahor called for culture of dialogue. Author Feri Lainšček, one of the laureates, meanwhile highlighted the role Slovenian culture played in the country’s independence efforts.

Ljubljana – A special book about Milan Kučan, Slovenia’s first president, has been released ahead of his 80th birthday that will be celebrated on Thursday. The publication features 85 impressions of Kučan, including eight by foreign figures.

Ljubljana – Feri Lainšček, a writer and poet from Slovenia’s north-easternmost region, and Marko Mušič, an architect who has made a name for himself in Slovenia and throughout the former Yugoslavia, are the winners of the Prešeren Prizes for lifetime-achievement for 2021. The country’s top accolades for artistic accomplishments will be presented on 7 February.