Overview of the week's top stories
since 20 May 2002

Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek met on Friday with American President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington. The day was also Drnovšek’s 52^nd birthday, which Bush remembered.

The two leaders discussed the situation in Southeastern Europe and the War on Terrorism. Slovenia is a member of the US-led anti-terrorism international coalition. Nato expansion was also discussed, though Bush made no promises.

According to Dnevnik, Drnovšek mentioned to the press that Slovenia was not once called Slovakia during the trip.

Aside from Bush, Drnovšek also met with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and a representative of Vice President Dick Cheney. While Drnovšek was in Washington, the United States Senate approved USD 55.5 million in security assistance to countries which are candidates for Nato membership; Slovenia will receive USD 4.5 million of that sum. The House of Representatives has already passed the bill.

It is also possible that Economy Minister Tea Petrin (LDS) is also being considered for replacement. However, sources for 24 Ur do not believe that the Prime Minister would get rid of two ministers from his own party, the LDS. He also would not get rid of two female ministers.

On Tuesday, upon his return to Slovenia, the Prime Minister told reporters that "I am surprised about this talk about reconstructing [the government], since I have not officially indicated this will take place. In any case, I am constantly evaluating the work of the government and the ministers. If any changes will take place, I will speak first with the coalition partners."

Monday marked the start of the campaign to collect the signatures required to enact two referenda proposals. On Tuesday, a third began. In order for any of the three proposals to actually go to referendum, 40,000 signatures must be collected.

The first proposal concerns the Law on the System of Salaries in the Public Sector. The Law was passed by the National Assembly on 26 April, but on 3 May the National Council vetoed it; on 7 May, the Assembly overturned that veto with a large majority voting in favor of the law. The referendum was called by the Police Union in an attempt to block the government from enacting the law, and other unions are also supporting the initiative. The required signatures must be collected by 18 June.

The second concerns the draft Law on Organizations for the Handicapped, and was proposed by the Society for Handicapped Theory and Culture. The Society wants to have the question of representation of organizations for the handicapped addressed in such a way it does not take into account types of handicaps and social status. The deadline for collecting the 40,000 signatures is 3 July.

The final referendum proposal concerns the privatization of Nova Ljubljanska Banka and Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor. The SNS and the non-parliamentary Nova Party made the proposal, which seeks to amend the draft Law on the Privatization of Banks to ensure that majority shares in the country’s banks are not sold to foreigners. Signatures for this initiative must be collected by 19 July.

The government’s Elections 2002 website went online on Monday. The site features news, background information and statistics related to the upcoming local and presidential elections, as well as information about past elections and referenda.

One of the central features of the site is the results of the local elections from 1994 and 1998, which have never been published before.

In addition to information about past referenda, the site also includes information about the three referenda in which voters will be able to participate on election day. On-line surveys tracking the support of each of the three initiatives will be updated daily.

• Amnesty International Slovenia (AI) and the Institute for National Questions released Collection of Documents of International Protection of Minorities on Tuesday. The book includes the most important international, regional and bilateral documents as well as relevant Slovene Constitutional Court rulings. Contextual information is also included, as well as an annotated bibliography of print and electronic resources.