Overview of the week's top stories
since 16 February 2002

A trio called Sestre, the Sisters, with the song Samo Ljubezen (Only Love), will represent Slovenia at the Eurosong 2002 contest, on 25 May in Tallinn. Participating countries hold national contests to choose the one song which represents them at the European level. The Eurosong pop festival has launched many careers, including those of Olivia Newton John, ABBA and Celine Dion.

But somehow the Slovene national Eurosong contest managed to spin wildly out of control into easily the biggest story of the week. The Slovene media saturated, and even Reuters and CNN carried the story.

The national Eurosong contest began innocently on Thursday, with eighteen songs. Ten made it through to the final round, held on Friday, but the clear favorites were Sestre's Samo Ljubezen and Karmen Stavec's Še in Še (More and More).

Sestre, who go by the names Miss Marlena, Daphne and Emperatrizz, performed in retro stewardess uniforms with their backup singers dressed as pilots. Samo Ljubezen was written by pop star Magnifico (Robert Pešut) and Barbara Pešut.

Two in-studio juries gave top marks to Sestre, but the third component of the judging, a telephone voting tally, ran into trouble.

The computer system was overloaded, taking in more than 90,000 calls in five minutes. The response, roughly double last year's, delayed a final tally. Stavec had beaten Sestre by 31,944 votes to 8,454. But since the in-studio juries' decisions carry more weight than the telephone voting results, Sestre won.

When it became apparent later that instead of five minutes, the telephone voting lasted more than seven, the telephone voting results were invalidated. The telephone vote is not necessary to declare a winner, according to Eurosong rules.

Technical issues were not the only scandal of the night. Patrik Greblo, who wrote three songs in the contest including Stavec's Še in Še, was taken away in an ambulance. According to him, many performers and their teams were leaving in protest of the voting irregularities. Greblo ran into Magnifico, the man behind Samo Ljubezen, backstage and explained the situation. Magnifico took the protest personally and assaulted him.

Not reported in the press, however, is Magnifico's side of the story. Though Magnifico has not given a public statement, there are rumors that Greblo said something homophobic about Sestre and Magnifico reacted in their defense.

Pop TV ran comments by several political figures. Franc Kangler, an SLS member of parliament questioned whether judges rigged the contest. However, SDS member of parliament Tone Partljic defended Sestre, saying that the song should be more important than the performer. He told Pop TV that he does not care who is a "homosexual, lesbian, or transvestite", but quickly added that he would rather look at a "hot chick" himself.

Speaking to the daily Finance, Jernej Repovš of Studia Marketing said that with Sestre’s win, "With this we are clearly stating that there is no discrimination here." But the public outcry against the trio did not agree.

Mirko Zamernik, head of the commission, told the press after the meeting that he would like to see the police investigation transferred from Slovenj Gradec to a special prosecuting group on the national level.

Later in the week, head of police Marko Pogorevc also met with the commission. Pogorevc told the press afterwards that he is certain that the Slovenj Gradec police are carrying out their work as best they can and that he fully trusts the investigators involved in the affair. He said that Zamernik had not mentioned moving the investigation from Slovenj Gradec.

Pogorevc would not give the press details about the progress the police investigation has made in the past year, preferring to keep that information classified.

According to Zamernik, the commission has accumulated so much documentation that it will have to get outside help in sorting through it. The commission is charged with investigating the manner in which the police in Koroška have investigated the Petek affair, and is not carrying out its own investigation on Petek’s behalf. There is concern that local powers in Koroška have hampered the police’s progress.

Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel visited Ljubljana on Wednesday and reiterated Austria’s desire to create a Central European regional bloc within the European Union. On the model of the Benelux countries, the bloc would include the former Hapsburg domains – Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Slovenia.

The Austrians began forwarding the plan last year, and it received a cool reception, particularly in Ljubljana and Prague.

Prime Minister Drnovšek said that Slovenia is not opposed to future cooperation with Austria, but that is only possible if Austria does not make bilateral issues complications in Slovenia’s attempt to secure EU membership. Drnovšek said that creating such conditions can neither be a foundation for partnership nor for the successful resolution of the issues themselves.

Chancellor Schüssel assured Drnovšek that bilateral issues would be resolved on the bilateral level, and held up the cultural agreement between Austria and Slovenia as an example. Signed by both countries' foreign ministers last April, the National Assembly ratified the cultural agreement this week.

The agreement explicitly states that German-speakers in Slovenia enjoy rights under Article 61 of the Constitution. However, those rights are not limited to collective rights for the group, but can be applied to individuals.

Mercator recorded a loss in both Croatia and Bosnia last year, though this was foreseen. This year, the Bosnian enterprise will record its first profits. Mercator concerns in Croatia, however, are expected to once again see a loss in 2002, due to the scale of investment requirements.

There are 15 titles total in this group, including the new monthlies Men's Health (released in April by Motomedia), Eva and Mars (released in May and June, respectively, by Delo Revije). Motomedia refused to release statistics for the other two new titles, Playboy and Cosmopolitan, which entered the market in May and September, respectively.

Men’s Health led the pack of new men’s magazines with a 3.5 percent share of the market, or 59,000 regular readers. Playboy had 34,000 and Mars just 16,000.

Women’s magazines had much greater success. Cosmopolitan secured a 5.4 percent share, or 91.800 regular readers; Eva followed with 3.6 percent, or 61,000 readers. While only 14 percent of men admitted to regularly reading Eva, 42.4 percent of women admitted to regularly reading Men’s Health.

Looking at demographics, the average Eva reader is between 25 and 29, has a high-school education and a middle-class income. More than half live in Ljubljana, 17 percent in Kranj and 14 percent in Maribor. No one in Nova Gorica admitted to reading Eva.

The average Men's Health reader is between 30 and 39, has a high-school education, and earns more than the average Eva reader. Nearly half live in Ljubljana, 16.1 percent in Maribor and 11.3 in Kranj.

A bit of national pride was not the only highlight of the Olympics for Slovenes. Sporting goods manufactured by Elan were involved in three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, which the company hopes to turn into higher profits in the future. Aside from the Slovene bronze, Elan goods were also used by medal winners from Switzerland, Poland, Canada and Finland.

• Varuh meje (Guardian of the Frontier), the first feature film by director Maja Weiss, premiered last week at the Berlin film festival. The film, together with the Estonian-Latvian film Head Käed, shared the award in the Panorama section. The festival's highest award, the golden bear, went to the Japanese Sen To Chihiro No Kamikakushi and the Irish Bloody Sunday.