On the eve of Slovenian Statehood Day, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr Janez Janša, hosted a reception for relatives of the members of the Slovenian Territorial Defence and Ministry of the Interior forces as well as those of civilian war victims killed in the war for an independent Slovenia.

 

(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)

 

As the Prime Minister said in his address, 25 June is a special day, the day we celebrate Slovenia’s statehood, and a national holiday on which we particularly remember the people killed in the war for an independent Slovenia. He observed that, although the price Slovenia had had to pay in blood had been, thanks to careful preparations, relatively small, nonetheless it had been for those who had paid with their lives, and for their families, the highest possible price.

 

(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)

 

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to recall that, this year, Slovenian Statehood Day was being celebrated in special circumstances, with Slovenia taking its turn, as the first of the most recent wave of EU Member States, at the helm of the EU-27. “There are many reasons for us to take pride in this,” he declared, “And many reasons to be everlastingly grateful to those, in order to make it possible, paid the ultimate price.”

 

The Prime Minister then attended the commemorative session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, followed by the main state ceremony commemorating Slovenian Statehood Day.