Former historical region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and, subsequently, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, from 1945 to 1991 Slovenia was a socialist republic federated to the Yugoslavia of Marshal Tito, from which it became independent in June 1991. First among the Yugoslav republics having unilaterally declared its independence, Slovenia managed to complete its detachment from the federation after a short and low intensity conflict with the federal army, known as the ‘Ten Day War’. In any case, it remained substantially sheltered from the violence of the civil war which instead characterized the secession of the other Balkan republics. Since the first years after independence, Slovenia has significantly expanded its presence internationally and, in 2004, it became part of the main Euro-Atlantic multilateral organizations, from NATO to the European Union (Eu). After adopting the single currency in 2007, in the first half of 2008 it took over the six-month presidency of the EU council, first among the new European members.. On a bilateral level, Slovenia maintains friendly relations with the main European countries, in particular with Italy, Germany, France and Austria, its major trading partners. Relations with neighboring Croatia have been fluctuating since independence, especially due to disputes over the demarcation of land and sea borders (the Bay of Piran and the Dragogna river) and the difficult management (disposal of radioactive waste) of the nuclear plant Krško, located on Slovenian territory but whose ownership is shared between the two countries. The territorial dispute was at the basis of the veto placed by Slovenia, in December 2008, on the opening of new negotiating chapters on the path towards Croatia’s entry into the EU.. Only the reaching in 2009 of an agreement for the constitution of an international arbitration that was in charge of defining the borders in all disputed points, led Slovenia – after a parliamentary vote of ratification and a popular referendum – to withdraw the veto on the progress of negotiations between the European Union and Croatia. However, following the publication of some wiretapping between a judge and the Slovenian government that would cast doubt on the bias of the proceeding, in July 2015 the Zagreb government blocked the arbitration procedure which should have issued a final judgment in December of the same year..
According to itypeusa, Slovenia is a parliamentary republic in which there is an imperfect bicameralism. The national assembly is the main legislative institution of the country: 90 elected members sit there in the 88 constituencies into which the Slovenian territory is divided (the other two seats are reserved for the Italian and Hungarian communities). Conversely, the prerogatives of the national council, the Slovenian upper house, concern the presentation of legislative proposals to the national assembly and the possibility of rejecting the laws already examined by the latter, subjecting them to a second resolution. Its composition is peculiar, as its 40 members are an expression of the main interest groups of the nation: from territorial ones to representatives of categories such as employers, employees, peasants, freelancers and artisans. The Slovenian head of state is the president of the republic, who is elected every five years by direct suffrage and has certain prerogatives that make him an important institutional figure: in addition to representing the unity of the nation, he is head of the armed forces, appoints ambassadors and promulgates international treaties and laws. Currently, the president is Borut Pahor, winner of the December 2012 elections. Much of the executive power is instead held by the government, which depends on the confidence of the national assembly. Following the serious internal economic crisis and the no-confidence motion posed by her party (positive Slovenia), Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek,Zaab). The legislative elections of 13 July 2014, the second anticipated in two and a half years, saw the victory of Miro Cerar, leader of Stranka Mira Cerarja (Smc) – a center-left group founded only in June 2014 – with the 34.6% of the votes. Despite this statement, SMC has formed a governing coalition with the Liberal Democrats of the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (D esus) and with the Social Democrats which should guarantee a certain stability of the legislature despite the persistence of a certain weakness of the government due to divisions. internal regarding the conduct of the privatization program and a series of corruption scandals involving some ministers.
