Carinthian Slovenes

Disappearing, an award-winning documentary that sheds light on how the Slovenian language and culture have been disappearing from everyday life in Carinthia, Austria, is on show at Ljubljana's Kinodvor Cinema. The director Andrina Mračnikar believes the reason for the disappearing has been systematic discrimination for the past 100 years.

The Klagenfurt-based law firm of members of the Slovenian community in Carinthia has filed a complaint with the Austrian Constitutional Court over the country's recent decision to extend controls at the border with Slovenia for yet another six months.

Franc Jožef Smrtnik, a member of the Slovenian ethnic minority in the Austrian province of Carinthia, made it to the 36-member state assembly in the 5 March local election. He ran for Team Kärnten. So far, Carinthian Slovenian Ana Blatnik from the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) has served as an assembly member.

Graz – Verschwinden (Vanishing), a documentary by Andrina Mračnikar, the Austrian director and screenwriter of Slovenian descent, about the Slovenian language disappearing from everyday life in Carinthia, has won the audience award at the Diagonale film festival in Graz.

Vienna – Slovenian minority poet and writer Maja Haderlap from Carinthia, Austria, has won the Christine Lavant Prize for her work, including a novel about the battle of Slovenians living in Carinthia against National Socialism in Austria, the newspaper Delo reported on Tuesday.

Photo: mfa.gov.rs

Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch says the accession of the Balkans to the EU is possible in ten years' time.

In the meantime, as he said, cooperation between the countries in the region, where he sees Serbia as a factor of stability, is becoming more and more important.