Photo: BOBO

 

According to the Prime Minister, signposts are important, but not vital. ''What is vital is the situation of the Slovenian minority, what enables the Slovenian minority to survive and not assimilate. With regard to this, we must stress the progress made in recent years, when more money has been allocated for bilingual kindergartens, and bilingual schools, and the number of people in Carinthia learning Slovene has risen,'' he said.

 

With regard to the Austrian State Treaty, the PM believes that this is an international agreement which cannot be unilaterally amended by one of the signatories, and with regard to Slovenia's notification of succession to the Austrian State Treaty, the PM addressed the question to those who had governed the state for twelve years, but failed to do this. However, according to the PM, this does not change the fact that the Slovenian state has been, and will remain, the protector of Slovenian minorities not only in Austria, but also elsewhere, in all neighbouring countries, and that in recent years significant progress had been made in this field.

 

The PM expressed hope that a broader consensus would be reached in the minority organisations in Austrian Carinthia, and assessed that the meeting with minority representative at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been fruitful, as views had been somewhat reconciled. ''As long as the minority remains divided, those who do not wish to solve the issue, will have an easy task,'' he added.

 

In his response to the agreement on bilingual signposts in Austrian Carinthia, the PM also addressed the criticism of the biggest opposition party, the LDS, by saying that those who were most vociferous, had had decades of opportunity to resolve the issue, but had failed to advance even as much as a millimetre.