Not to be confused with Slovakia (which, confusingly, is called "Slovensko" in its own native language). The flag's slightly different (but only slightly) and it wasn't Warsaw Pact. Though it was Commie Land.
Slovenia (Slovene: Slovenija), officially known as The Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija), one of the former states of Yugoslavia, is a country located in Central Europe and Southern Europe. It arrived into the world of independent states in a dramatic style, after a ten-day war against the rest of Yugoslavia, when it declared independence on June 25, 1991, having held a referendum a few months earlier. After winning that, a low-intensity war with under 100 deaths, Slovenia was rapidly internationally recognized (though with some initial reluctance from both the United States and The European Union), escaped the rest of the horrors that would eventually tear the rest of Yugoslavia apart, and quietly got on with things.
Slovenia's national ethos in a nutshell is that its people might share blood and language with the rest of the Yugoslavian people, but their culture sets them apart, being more aligned towards Austria and Italy.
It rapidly became the prize-winner of the new European democracies, democratizing rapidly and becoming prosperous. It is the richest of all the post-Communist states in Europe.
In 2004, it joined NATO and The European Union. In the case of the 2004 EU entrants, only Cyprus was better off. Slovenia has since adopted the Euro as its currency.
Slovenia is a parliamentary democracy and a unitary state, with a lot of ecological diversity, with the Alps and Lake Bled being two examples.
In media:
See Slovene Media.Famous Slovenes include:
- Željko Ivanek, an actor who has appeared in many TV series such as Homicide: Life on the Street, 24 (Andre Drazen) and currently Madam Secretary - he frequently plays lawyer or politician types. He left Yugoslavia permanently at age 7.
- Melanija Knavs, better known as Melania Knauss-Trump, model and later US First Lady, wife of President Donald Trump.
- Laibach, an Industrial group named for the German name of the country's capital city of Ljubljana.
- Within Destruction, a Deathcore group from Jesenice.
- Gramatik, a Trip Hop producer from Portorož but currently living in New York.
- Slavoj Žižek, a critical theorist/philosopher famous for using examples from popular culture to demonstrate philosophical points (one wonders what he would think of TV Tropes).
- Vinko Bogataj, an otherwise-obscure ski jumper who forever entered American pop culture when Wide World Of Sports used footage of his spectacular ramp wipeout in 1970 to illustrate Jim McKay's opening narration of "...the agony of defeat".Postscript
- Goran Dragić, current NBA player; also notable for leading Slovenia to an unexpected title at EuroBasket 2017 (the European championship).
- Luka Dončić, NBA superstar with the Dallas Mavericks, who had his international coming-out party as an 18-year-old at the aforementioned EuroBasket 2017.
- Anže Kopitar, current captain of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, who's helped them to two Stanley Cups.
- Tadej Pogačar, two-time Tour de France winner (2020, 2021).
Slovenia in fiction:
- Veronika Decides to Die by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho takes place in Ljubljana.
- The Third World War begins when Slovenia declares independence and both US and Soviet forces intervene.
- Season of the Witch, though being set in The High Middle Ages, there's no independent Slovene state yet, but instead the Duchy of Styria, which is part of modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. The supposedly witch Anna is from the area's largest city, Maribor (then called by its German name, Marburg), as well.
- The Professional Wrestling Tag Team The Batiri, best known for their work in CHIKARA, are billed from Bled Island.
The Slovene flag
Coat of arms of Slovenia
, the nation's highest mountain, over waves symbolizing the Adriatic Sea and the nation's rivers, all underneath three golden six-pointed stars (in honor of the Counts of Celje, the most important family of nobles to have come from Slovenia).
The Slovene national anthem
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Government
- Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic
- President: Nataša Pirc Musar
- Prime Minister: Robert Golob
Miscellaneous
- Capital and largest city: Ljubljana
- Population: 2,108,977
- Area: 20,271 km
- Currency: Euro (€) (EUR)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: SI
- Country calling code: 386
- Highest point: Triglav (2864 m/9,396 ft) (74th)
- Lowest point: Adriatic Sea (1,233 m/4,045 ft) (-)
