The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr Janez Janša, today attended the symposium on Primož Trubar at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZASU), where he also delivered an address. He opened by saying that the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Primož Trubar’s birth and Slovenia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union both called attention to Slovenia’s historic and contemporary integration into the wider spiritual and material environment. “The present has its roots in the past, and both the present and past constitute the foundations of the future and can best be combined in a single message: the Slovene world was, and still is, an inventive and creative part of the European mosaic,” declared the Prime Minister.

 

(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)

 

In his address, the Slovenian Prime Minister described Trubar’s career, which had led him to travel around neighbouring countries and south-eastern Europe. The life experience of the father of Slovene-language literature brings together different European countries and cultures, and his allegiance to a European understanding of the world is reflected in his critical spirit. The Prime Minister remarked that Trubar had, throughout his life, been aware that differences of opinion were not a final destination but a stairway to true knowledge – a pointer for action.

 

Trubar’s greatness also resides in the fact that he managed in a short space of time to elevate the language of his countrymen to the level of other European languages. “He created out of the Slovene language a wonderful – even virtuoso – instrument of thought and expression,” said the Prime Minister, going on to emphasise that Trubar’s spirit refused to be constrained by the political reality of that time, which had fragmented his homeland into a series of feudal estates. Even in his first books and letters, Trubar already spoke of ‘the Slovene lands’. “On many occasions, Trubar showed that he was aware of the diversity of his countrymen; but the important thing is that he saw their unity. And the future proved him right,” said the Prime Minister.

 

(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)

 

In this, the Year of Intercultural Dialogue, Primož Trubar – at one and the same time a Slovene European and a European Slovene – can be seen as an inspiring figure and genuine advocate of intercultural dialogue. “His work, a testimony to human greatness, is neither myth nor legend; it is a living value,” concluded the Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša.