Yearbook 2004
Slovenia. The total population in Slovenia is 2,078,949 people in 2020. Slovenia became the first former Yugoslav Republic member of both NATO and the EU during the year. In doing so, the country had achieved some of the most important political goals since independence in 1991.
Just before accession to the EU on May 1, a criticized referendum was held, with the overwhelming majority of Slovenians voting against rendering residents with roots in other Yugoslav republics their civil rights. This involved nearly 20,000 people who were removed from all official documents in 1992. Only ethnic Slovenes automatically gained citizenship after independence. The referendum was not binding, but that it came to fruition at all was seen as an important political mark of nationalist forces in the right-wing opposition. See ehuacom.com for vocational training in Slovenia.
The right also received unexpectedly strong support in the June elections to the European Parliament, and when parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia in October, there was an unexpected regime change. The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) almost doubled its voter support and became the largest with close to 30% of the vote. SDS formed a center-right government with three small parties.
In early December, SDS leader Janez Jansa was appointed new Prime Minister. He promised sales of state property prior to the country’s planned accession to the EU’s monetary union EMU 2007.
In 2015, the country became transit country for Asian refugee flows up through Europe. About 375,000 refugees passed through the country. 250 times more than the previous year. From September, authorities began detaining refugees who had entered the country «illegally» and hundreds more were sent back to Croatia. The detainees were collected in camps that were in most cases unfit for residence.
Nearly 100,000 had come through the country in the first months of 2016 before the EU refugee summit agreement with Turkey and the southern Balkan countries closed borders. Almost everyone else went on to Austria, but just over 1000 sought asylum in Slovenia. However, the processing time for asylum cases was very long.
In April 2016, Parliament passed an amended Partnership Act that gives gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals.
In November 2016, the Constitution was amended. The amendment established that the people have a right to clean drinking water and that the country’s water resources are public and cannot be privatized.
President Pahor was re-elected in October-November 2017. In the first round he gained 47.2% and in the second round 53.0%. A significant decline compared to the 2012 election. The turnout in the second round was only 41.8%.
Physical characteristics
The territory is mainly mountainous; towards the interior, bands of hills and plateaus alternate with flat areas. The reliefs, which represent the extreme south-eastern offshoots of the Alpine chain, are oriented according to two main alignments: one to the North, along the border with Austria and the other to the West, in the region bordering Italy. AN stands the Karawanken wall, a continuation of the Carnic Alps, which converges to the East, towards the Savinjske Alpe, where the relief rises up to 2558 m of Mount Grintavec. In the north-western region the reliefs of the Julian Alps unfold, to which Mount Tricorno (2863 m) belongs, the highest elevation in Slovenia. Towards the south, the Alpine ridges lower into a series of limestone plateaus, crossed by valleys and depressions, which occupy a large part of Carniola, the southern region of the country, and present the same karst phenomena as the nearby Venezia Giulia. The main rivers are the Drava and the Mur, which however only cross the Slovenia for a short distance, and the Sava, one of the most important tributaries of the Danube.. ● The climate is alpine, with very cold winters, except along the narrow coastal strip and the eastern region. Precipitation is abundant and on average reaches 1000 mm, but on the reliefs there are also peaks of 2000-2500 mm.
Population
Slovenia is characterized by a notable ethnic homogeneity which places it on a different level compared to the variegated Balkan world: the Slovenes represent 83.1% of the total population and none of the numerous minorities present in the area has such a consistency as to to be able to compete with the majority group: the Serbs, the most numerous, are just 2%; followed by Croats (1.8%), Bosnians (1.1%) and small groups of Hungarians, Albanians, Macedonians and Italians. The population growth rate has remained steady, around 0.1%, since independence. The greatest demographic density is found in the internal basins and in the eastern flat areas; the urban population is just over 50% of the total. Excluding the capital, Ljubljana (268,423 residents In 2008), the other important urban centers (Maribor, Celje) do not exceed 100,000 residents. The country’s only port is the town of Koper. ● The national language is Slovenian, divided into numerous dialects, but Italian and Hungarian are also spoken in the ethnically mixed regions. ● The dominant religion (57.8%) is Roman Catholic, with Muslim (2.4%) and Christian-Orthodox (2.3%) minorities; 10.1% of the population professes to be atheists.