A representative of the National Party from Slovenia, Srecko Prijatelj, said in a statement on Wednesday that Istria had never been part of Croatia. He said that possible international arbitration regarding the Croatian-Slovene border should include not only Savudrija Bay, which he said was "indisputably Slovene", but Istria as well. "Istria was never part of Croatia and we consider the current situation an act of occupation," Prijatelj said.
Commenting on the statement, Jakovcic said that it had been made by a marginal Slovene politician to score cheap political points. He called on the residents of Istria to refrain from possible incidents and to treat members of the Slovene minority in Istria and Slovene visitors as friends and neighbours.
Jakovcic admitted that he had information about minor incidents in Istria involving local residents and guests from Slovenia, which he said were mostly quarrels.
He announced that a charter on the establishment of the Adriatic Euro-region would be signed in Venice on February 6 and that the Istria County leadership would adopt at its next session a decision to join the Alpe-Adria region, which would include Croatia's Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar counties, Italy's Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions, Austria's Carinthia and an unspecified Slovene region.
"Despite the rightist positions on the Slovene political scene, I believe that regions which are historically and politically oriented towards each other should cooperate," Jakovcic said.