After the Second World War, the state of Yugoslavia was formed, a sub-area became independent in 1991 and forms today's state of Slovenia.
The small country in Eastern Europe now belongs to the EU and is part of the European Monetary Union.
The
state of Slovenia
is located in Eastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula and has a narrow access to the Adriatic coast.
Slovenia is about the same size as the German state of Hesse.
The
population
consists of a little more than two million inhabitants, which roughly corresponds to the inhabitants of the city of Hamburg plus the citizens of Herne.
Ljubljana - The area of present-day
Slovenia can
look back on an eventful
history
.
At the beginning of the 6th century AD, Slavs settled the region and founded the Principality of Carantania.
Almost 200 years later, the Franks conquered the principality.
The Christianization of the inhabitants took place through the dioceses of Salzburg and Aquileia.
The now Christian
state
was integrated into the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century and declared the Duchy of Carniola in 1364.
Later the area fell to the Habsburg Monarchy, then to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Only after more than a thousand years did today's Republic of Slovenia become a free, independent state again in 1991.
Slovenia - the history of the state after the First World War
In the 19th century the ethnic groups gathered in the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary developed an ever stronger national consciousness.
When the kingdom was dissolved after the First World War, a “National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs” was created.
When Italian troops tried to conquer Carinthia and Slovenian coastal regions, the National Council asked the Kingdom of Serbia for help.
From this military cooperation the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes emerged at the end of 1918, which was also called the
State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
, or SHS State for short.
After the war, territories were granted to this state by various treaties.
In 1929, after a coup d'état, this forerunner state, on which part of the territory is now
Slovenia
, became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The Serbs had already dominated
politics
before
that, this dominance increased in the kingdom and the Slovenes also suffered from the loss of access to the Adriatic coast.
Slovenia - history from World War II
During World War II, what is now Slovenia was quickly occupied by the Axis powers and divided between Germany, Italy and Hungary.
Around 80,000 Slovenes were abducted from their homeland and forced to work in Germany, Romania and Bulgaria.
The children of Slovenian partisans were sent to Franconia as leverage.
At the end of the war, both the German-speaking minority and the Croatian and Slovenian troops who had fought against the Yugoslav Liberation Army fled outside the country, often to Carinthia.
From there, however, those affected were extradited and subsequently killed.
On November 29, 1945, the
Democratic Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was established
;
from 1963
the
state
was called the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
.
As a Socialist Republic of
Slovenia
, today's Slovenia belonged to it in the form of a partial republic.
At that time, the country was very progressive.
Women in Slovenia were allowed to vote on August 10, 1945.
From 1946 onwards, Slovenia guaranteed women the right to stand as a candidate, i.e. the opportunity to run for office, and full legal, social and economic equality.
Slovenia - dissatisfaction with the politics of Yugoslavia
Since the 1980s in particular, the Slovenes have become increasingly dissatisfied with the
policies of
the Belgrade leadership.
This resentment led to the declaration of independence on June 25, 1991. The Yugoslav People's Army tried to take the area and reintegrate it into the Yugoslav
state
, but the Slovenes successfully defended themselves in the 10-day war and defended their young state
Slovenia
.
At the end of 1991 Slovenia passed its own constitution, and with the establishment of the republic the state in its present form came into being.
Just a month later, the then twelve member states of the EC recognized Slovenia as an independent state.
The
country's
population
is very homogeneous, and the country was only slightly destroyed in the armed conflicts.
Therefore, stable democratic conditions quickly developed and in 1998 the accession negotiations to the EU began.
The state of Slovenia has been a member there since 2004, and the euro has been the country's currency since 2007.
At the same time as monetary union, Slovenia also joined the Schengen Agreement, which eliminated border controls with other EU countries.
Slovenia - politics in the state
As in Germany, the president, who primarily takes on representative tasks, is the country's head of state.
However, the President in
Slovenia is
elected directly by the people every five years, while the German Federal President is determined by the Federal Assembly.
Borut Pahor,
who was
confirmed in office in 2017, has been
the country's president
since 2012
; he was previously prime minister.
Janez Janša has
held this post since 2012
.
The parliament is also similar to the German system.
It consists of two chambers - the State Assembly and the State Council.
The State Assembly holds 90 members, some of whom are elected directly and others through voting shares.
A guaranteed ethnic group mandate exists for the autonomous minorities (Hungarians and Italians).
On issues that only affect these minorities, their ethnic group members have an absolute right of veto.
Forty MPs from economic, regional and social interest groups meet in the State Council.
Parliament is elected every four years.
What is difficult for the
country's
politics
is that the border between Croatia and Slovenia is still unclear today.
In 2010 it was decided that this conflict should be settled by an international commission led by the EU.
The 2015 refugee crisis also posed a major challenge when over a million strangers crossed the country.
Slovenia - geography and cities
Although
Slovenia is
a small
state
, the
geography is
varied.
Half of the country is covered with forest, there are high mountain ranges with the Karawanken, Julian and Steiner Alps, and there are also smaller low mountain ranges.
There are also flat landscapes and karst areas.
Almost 50 kilometers of the country run along the Adriatic coast and thus offer a narrow access to the Mediterranean.
The climate in Slovenia is twofold.
While there is a typical continental climate in the northern parts of the country, it is significantly warmer and more humid in the southern parts of the country - Mediterranean in the direction of the Slovenian Riviera on the Adriatic Sea.
Since Slovenia only has a little more than 2 million inhabitants, the
cities are
not very big
apart from the capital Ljubljana
.
The most populous places in the country include (as of 2015):
Ljubljana (capital): almost 300,000 inhabitants
Maribor: less than 115,000 inhabitants
Kranj: around 60,000 inhabitants
Koper: approx. 50,000 inhabitants
Celje: around 49,000 inhabitants
Novo mesto: about 37,000 inhabitants
Velenje: around 33,000 inhabitants
State of Slovenia - language and population
The official language in the
state of Slovenia
is Slovenian.
In addition, the languages Hungarian and Italian enjoy special protection in defined areas with autochthonous minorities.
There is a small German-speaking minority in Slovenia, but it is not recognized as such.
This also applies to Romanians and Bulgarians and their languages.
Romani, the
language of
the Roma, is also not one of the protected languages, although this group should enjoy special protection according to the constitution.
However, the implementation of these requirements is still pending.
Many Slovenes speak more than one foreign language, as English, German and Italian are taught in Slovenian schools from an early age.
The majority of the
population
in the state are Slovenians.
In addition, there are Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks who came to this part of the country through relocations during the existence of Yugoslavia.
According to the 2002 census, the population was distributed as follows:
Slovenes: 83.06 percent
Serbs: 1.98 percent
Croatians: 1.81 percent
Bosniaks: 1.1 percent
Italians: 0.11 percent
Magyars: 0.32 percent
Germans: 0.03 percent
Austrians: 0.01 percent
8.9 percent of the population gave no information on ethnicity.