Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Temperature: -17°C Clouds: Cloud and Visibility OK
Maribor, Slovenia.
Temperature: -15°C Conditions: Mist Clouds: Clear Skies
Portoroz, Slovenia.
Temperature: -7°C Clouds: Cloud and Visibility OK
The Joško Joras house: epicenter of a dispute between Slovenia & Croatia.
Ahhhhh, election season, when men trade their dignity for media exposure. The president of the conservative/nationalist SLS party, Janez Podobnik, was arrested yesterday by Croatian border police during an election-season stunt. He and a group of others were on a pilgrimage to visit the Slovenian martyr Joško Joras, whose house straddles the border between Slovenia and Croatia. As far as border disputes go, it’s pretty ridiculous. Unfortunately, it’s just one in a long list of disputes between Croatia and Slovenia that never seem to be resolved. Yesterday’s incident came to a head when Mr. Podobnik defiantly refused to show his documents at the border crossing, arguing that the Jonas house was on Slovenian territory. You can imagine how well that idea went over. In the ensuing scuffle (pictures/video) Podobnik fell backwards over a railing. He and a fellow parliamentarian, Ivan BožiÄ?, were then arrested. The number of votes the party will gain from the stunt is yet to be determined. (For a Croatian perspective on the incident, see There Goes the Neighbourhood over at Draxblog.)
UPDATE Things are escalating. Slovenia’s Prime Minister has said that Slovenia will "no longer support Croatia’s EU bid." See: Slovenia withdraws support for Croatia’s EU bid over border incident. The government is meeting today to further discuss the issue.