Int'l Construction Fair kicks off in Cuba amid pandemic

The 13th edition of the International Fair of Construction "FECONS 2022" opened here Tuesday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in the Caribbean nation in March 2020.

The fair, taking place at Havana's PABEXPO exhibition center, comes at a time when the Caribbean nation is promoting housing and hotel construction as part of the national development plan for 2030.

"High-quality construction works in keeping with the principles of sustainable development are fundamental for our country," said Cuba's Deputy Construction Minister Angel Vilaragut, adding the event will help the nation boost economic activity and exports.

With delegates from 15 countries, including China, and running through Friday, the fair features presentations, lectures and a business forum. Less than three months ago, former power company head Robert Golob did not have a party to contest elections.

Today, he looks set to become the next prime minister of Slovenia after a small Green party he took over garnered more than a third of votes in Sunday's parliamentary elections and delivered Europe's latest rebuke of right-wing populists.

With nearly all the votes counted, Golob's Freedom Movement (GS) netted 34.5 percent, well ahead of conservative premier Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), which gained 23.5 percent.

Anger over the government's crackdown on civil liberties propelled the charismatic 55-year-old electrical engineer toward the top job in the Alpine country of two million.

"Our objective has been reached: a victory that will enable us to take the country back to freedom," Golob told cheering supporters via livestream from his home, where he is in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.

Recognised by his shoulderlength curly hair, a style he says he has had since his youth, Golob is a relative political newcomer.

During the campaign, he toured the country via bus, and his team posted his messages and advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

He refused to use Twitter "to avoid the temptation of fast fingers". Golob has promised to restore "normality", having billed the elections as a "referendum on democracy".

In Jansa's latest stint in office, tens of thousands of protesters have staged regular rallies, accusing the three-time premier of using the pandemic to attack media freedom and the judiciary and to undermine the rule of law.

An ally of nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and admirer of US ex-president Donald Trump, Jansa has also clashed with Brussels over media freedom and rule-of-law issues.

Golob has told AFP that he wants the country to "return" to being "West-orientated".

A former state secretary in charge of energy, Golob also spent time working at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship.

The father-of-three founded his own energy company in 2002 and ended up heading GEN-I, which promotes solar energy, following a series of mergers.