Category Archives: Slovenia

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

Slovenske novice writes today that after Saturday’s Ceca concert, three young Roma attacked an innocent man from Brežice. Due to numerous punches and kicks, he has a broken nose, a broken finger on his left hand, and an injury to his shoulder…

Bad for all.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

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Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Luka Mesec presented a package of measures to address Roma issues in Novo mesto. Among the measures, a new one will allow  to consider failure to attend primary school as child neglect. The minister said that this can have serious legal consequences. The proposal also envisages the mandatory inclusion of Roma children in kindergarten one year before entering school.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenian Settlements

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Slovenian Settlements

In the municipality of Metlika in Slovenia, there are approximately 400 Roma living in five Roma settlements, mostly on municipal land. Some have already purchased land from the municipality at a price of 7 euros per square meter. However, some issues in this area are still unresolved. In the municipality of Crnomelj, there are around 1,000 Roma.

Not much is done for integration there either.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

The director of Komunala Novo Mesto Bojan Kekec participated in a recent consultation on the employment of Roma. The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities presented a new program for the employment of the Roma population to mayors and employers in Novo Mesto.

“We are one of the few companies that also employs members of the Roma community. There are currently three Roma in regular employment at Komunala Novo Mesto,” explained director Bojan Kekec.

Better than nothing …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Trump, USAID, and Slovenia

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Trump, USAID, and Slovenia

The near total stop in USAID grants affects quite a few NGOs in Slovenia. The article here details the ones affected in Pomurje.

Among those affected are also Roma projects, as well as areas such as strengthening democratic values, ensuring gender equality, respecting human rights, protecting the environment, eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, and providing humanitarian aid.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Multipurpose Roma Centres

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Slovenia: Multipurpose Roma Centres

A new multipurpose centre in the Roma settlement of Dobruška vas (Škocjan municipality) replaced the old one that burned down last March. It includes a kindergarten. The article questions the use of these centres, and whether they are an effective mean to integrate Roma communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and School Inclusion

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Slovenia and School Inclusion

The Slovene education ministry is planning amendments to the Kindergarten Act, which aims to increase the inclusion of Roma in preschool education.

Now look at the picture used to illustrate this: This is typical of segregated schools, where stereotypes are the norm. Would this happen to other minorities?

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Legislative Package

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Slovenia: Legislative Package

The Slovene Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs Luka Mesec paid a working visit to Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni. His ministry is coordinating the preparation of the legislative package to resolve Roma issues. They will try to complete the coordination on Thursday, he said in a press statement. They will then probably have another “intensive round of coordination” with mayors and others involved, and the package could go into public debate sometime by the end of March.

The package of laws is intended to encourage the inclusion of children in kindergartens and schools and improve living conditions.

Let’s see what comes out of it.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: EU Funds

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Slovenia: EU Funds

The Slovenian Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development has approved European funds for the Public Call for Co-financing of a network of multifunctional Roma centres. The total value of the project is 5.5 million euros, with the European Social Fund Plus contributing 4,427,500 euros. The project’s goal is to improve the socio-economic situation of the Roma community, strengthen their inclusion in society and provide better conditions for a quality life.

It needs more than centres like this to change the situation …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Best Roma Athlete

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Best Roma Athlete

In the Duše Škof Hall (former castle hall) in Murska Sobota, Slovenia, awards were presented to the best Roma athletes and teams in 2024. The best Roma athlete of the past year is Alja Horvat, a member of the national champions of the ŽNK Mura Nona team in the under-17 competition, and the best Roma athlete is wrestler Mitja Cener, a member of the Sobota Wrestling Association, who achieved exceptional success in the Balkan championship and domestic competitions.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia: EU Funds

Roma in Southeastern Slovenia have a very bad reputation, and not a week goes by without some headlines in the Slovenian press about the Roma “problem”.

But not all Roma are like that. At the initiative of Silva Mesojedec from the Regional Civil Initiative (RCI) and Darko Rudaš, president of the Forum of Roma Councilors from the Roma settlement Pušča in Prekmurje, members of the RCI and also members of the People’s Initiative (LI) Šentjernej recently went to visit and see Pušča near Murska Sobota. There, they found a clean settlement, well ordered, with people working. The settlement has ca. 600 inhabitants.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Political Rant

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Slovenia: Political Rant

Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti, known for his controversial statements, harshly criticized the government and the European Union on social media for their approach to the Roma community. In his post, he used an offensive term for Roma and expressed dissatisfaction with current regulations, which he believes favor the Roma community at the expense of the safety and well-being of the majority population.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Challenges

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Slovenia: Challenges

The President of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, Marko Lotrič, received in Ljubljana a representative of the Sprememba takoj association Murim Baftiaro, who heads the association established in December 2023 to help Roma youth.

The two spoke about the key challenges facing the Roma community, especially in the areas of education, employment and reducing peer violence.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

Once a month, children from a Roma centre in Črnomelj, Slovenia, visit the local library. In this case they discussed about friendship and created a fairy tale on that topic.

Whether this is useful, will need to be assessed in a few years, but at least it is a start.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Helping

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Slovenia: Helping

The mission of the civic association Chestnut Horse is the education, support and social development of people with health disabilities, people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and people from marginalized communities (for the last two, read “Roma”). The association also offers educational activities for pedagogical workers working with these groups in primary schools.

Good work and intentions, but a drop in the ocean, unfortunately.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

uthern Slovenia and Roma

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uthern Slovenia and Roma

Representatives of the Association of Municipalities of Slovenia (SOS) met today in Ribnica at a regional meeting of municipalities of southeastern Slovenia. In the discussion, they highlighted primarily the social challenges in the region (read Roma integration) and the need for additional financing of municipalities from the aforementioned topic due to regional characteristics.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: “Incident”

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Slovenia: “Incident”

Another article on the case of a social worker who was apparently attacked by a group of Roma and was sentenced to a fine of 250 Euros for having qualified a Roma as a “Monkey”.

Andrej Brečko from Mihovice near Šentjernej said “After 11 years of volunteer work in the village community and in a local initiative to solve the Roma problem, which the state should have solved long ago, I have now even received a fine for violating public order and peace – even though I was the victim of an attack by a group of Roma. “Now in the eyes of the police, I am the violator”.

Well, treating people of being monkeys casts a doubt about his view on Roma …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

Not good for Roma. A video surfaced of two Roma attacking and beating a student at a bus stop in Novo Mesto.

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