Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the official dinner of Banka Slovenije in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana, 16 October 2024

It is a pleasure to be here this evening.

Not far from here, tucked away in the National and University Library, lie copies of the Abecedarium and the Catechism. These two texts, written by the religious reformer Primož Trubar in 1550, were the first ever books to be printed in Slovenian.^[1]

At a time when German was the language of the ruling classes, Trubar’s pioneering act was fundamental in helping to establish the national identity of Slovenians.^[2]

Today, his portrait graces the €1 coin in Slovenia, framed by the famous words found in the Catechism, “Stati inu Obstati” – “to stand and withstand”.^[3]

It is telling that both books – one a primer for the Slovenian language, the other guidelines for religious observance – were designed to teach, for there is much that Europe can learn from Slovenia in the uncertain world…