A few days ago, the Ljubljana City Council, at the suggestion of Mayor Zoran Janković, voted to ban spontaneous street musical performances until the end of December. This removed the trumpeters from the streets, who were the main target of the decision.
The person who punched and killed Aleš Šutar is 20-year-old Samira Šiljić, who allegedly provoked one of the guests of the bar before. According to unofficial information, the 20-year-old, who had already been convicted in the past and was also placed in the Radeče reformatory at a critical time, was incriminated by at least five witnesses before the investigating judge as part of the judicial investigation.
Bad.
The Dolenjska People’s Initiative, which brings together six people’s initiatives from the Dolenjska region and one from the Ljubljana region, last week presented a proposal for a program for the social and work activation of employees, which would also regulate the employment of Roma. Basically, Roma would need to enrol in special training centres where the unemployed would gain experience and vocational education, and financial social assistance would be tied to participation.
The low level of education among Roma is seen in Slovenia as a large issue in integrating Roma in the workforce. There have been efforts to better the situation, but they are only a few. The Novo Mesto Development and Education Centre has been working intensively with the education of Roma for the past twenty-five years, ever since they began to more seriously include them in the adult primary school program.
The Republic of Slovenia thanks the Romani Union Murska Sobota Association with a state decoration for its invaluable social contribution in the field of legal regulation of the special rights of the Roma community, and thus for its contribution to the development of an open and inclusive society and for strengthening intercultural dialogue and respect for human rights.
Črnomelj Roma councillor Božo Rozman, who was elected in the 2022 local elections, has submitted an irrevocable resignation from the position of councillor, which was also announced to the members of the Črnomelj municipal council. As a result, his mandate in the working body for monitoring the situation of the Roma community also ended.
In his resignation statement, he stated that he was leaving the position for personal reasons. Unofficially, he allegedly did not have enough understanding in the Roma community and could not withstand the pressure.
An article on the Roma music group Romano Glauso from the Roma settlement of Pušča near Murska Sobota, which according to the article, not only enriches the musical landscape, but also actively builds intercultural dialogue with a modern interpretation of tradition and contributes to greater understanding and coexistence in society.
Another article about the problems around Roma settlements in Slovenia. This time it is about the municipalities of Grosuplje and Semič, and mainly in the settlements Smrekec and Sovinek. Noise, shooting, illegal fires, and similar issues.
Residents of Vrh pri Šentjerneju and Dobravice warn of increasingly unbearable living conditions near the Roma settlement on Trdinova cesta. Roma councillor says it’s not that bad. Residents complain of noise up till after midnight; shooting, even with semi-automatic weapons; and of speeding cars even at night. They say the police doesn’t do anything.
The Prime Minister’s Office has sent a letter to municipalities with Roma settlements, inviting them to propose a location that would be suitable for setting up a model model of a Roma settlement. Two locations will be selected throughout the country. What are the selection criteria and who will pay for it?
A Roma settlement in which ownership relations, infrastructure and access to public services – especially education – will be clearly regulated. This is what a model Roma settlement looks like on paper. Minister of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Luka Mesec says that this is the next step after the adoption of the Šutar Law: “After security is ensured, it is necessary to ensure the conditions so that the Roma community and the majority population can begin to coexist differently than they have done so far.”
As he says, we already have good examples in Slovenia – for example, the Pušča settlement in Murska Sobota, where Roma live in their own houses, are employed, and their children regularly attend classes. “In Roma communities, however, the situation is the opposite. They live in illegal constructions, they have no assets or property, and because they have no assets or property, they are absolved of any responsibility,” says Mesec.
The Slovenian Prime Minister’s Office has appealed to municipalities with Roma settlements to cooperate in establishing the first model Roma settlement in Slovenia.
The initiative follows a meeting between Prime Minister Dr. Robert Golob and representatives of associations of municipalities, urban municipalities, communities of municipalities and development centres on November 21, 2025, at which the idea of creating a pilot environment was presented, in which ownership would be clearly regulated, comprehensive infrastructure would be built and access to all key public services, especially education, would be ensured.
This can also turn into a “resettlement” exercise and will anyhow continue the segregation.
A 49-year-old Rom who instigated a fight in a disco in Beltinci has ended up in custody. This was ordered by the investigating judge for the attack on a security guard. The police have filed criminal charges against two other suspects, but due to the procedure, the injured security guard also had to defend himself at the hearing.
In Slovenia there is a program that allows adults without a completed primary school to enroll in Primary School for Adults, while at the same time providing them with financial compensation – most often between 300 and 450 euros per month. It is part of the active employment policy run by the Employment Service. The purpose of the compensation is not to reward, but to ensure a minimum income so that an adult can complete their education. In addition, recipients also receive reimbursement for transportation and meal expenses, which gives the program additional appeal.
A group of Roma who came to a concert in Beltinci, Slovenia, by Serbian turbo folk singer Dejan Matić, first harassed visitors, then attacked and seriously injured a security guard. These Roma apparently wanted to continue the fight in the Soboča hospital, where the security guard’s head was stitched up due to the injury, but further violence was prevented by the police.
Bad.
Slovenian spends around 20 million euros per year on Roma integration. Ther are officially around 10’000 Roma in the country. But, the journalist and president of the Roma Academic Club Sandi Horvat recently said in an interview that very few so-called of Roma money actually reaches Roma.
Apparently, in the Maribor region of Slovenia, people are moving their children towards schools with less migrant children. The numbers are telling a more differentiated story: 9,400 students this school year, with 1,325 children from abroad. Most come from Bosnia and Herzegovina (488), followed by students from Kosovo (326), Ukraine (196) and Serbia (100). Individual students also come from more distant countries, such as Burundi, Bangladesh, Estonia and Sierra Leone.
What is clearly racist though is the next topic: Roma… “We have a lot of immigrant and Roma students,” explains Damjan Pihler, the principal of the Franceta Prešerna Elementary School. The number of Roma students in Maribor schools is around four percent and has not changed significantly in recent years. “This year, our school is attended by 27 Roma students and 30 children from abroad who are enrolled in a Slovenian school for the first time. We had the same number of immigrant students last year – that is, 60 children in two years whose mother tongue is not Slovenian.”
So basically, Roma from Slovenia are migrants …
A discussion with Mensur Haliti, Vice President of the Roma Foundation for Europe, about Slovenia’s response to the killing in Novo mesto and about Šutar’s law, which has sparked heated debates about Roma, security and democracy across Europe. Haliti, one of the key voices for the political empowerment of Roma in Europe, warns that the security law opens up dangerous patterns and goes beyond just the Roma issue.
An interview with Kevin Tudija, a young Roma from Bela Krajina. the 22-year-old is a gastronomic technician by profession. As he couldn’t get a job in Bela Krajina, he accepted an offer to work in Primorska. He worked there for two seasons, and now he’s returning to Metlika, where he will work with Roma children in a multi-purpose centre. He wants to set an example for them that with work and perseverance, they can finish school, continue their education in high school, and find a job.
He speaks about what it means to be a Rom, especially after the killing in Novo Mesto.
Three articles in French about the newly voted Šutar law in Slovenia. The Slovenian parliament passed this controversial law in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The law was adopted in a rapid succession, just twelve days after being proposed by the government. Those who voted in favour of the “Šutar Law” see it as essential measures to improve security in Slovenia. However, critics of the law denounce unconstitutional provisions and the risk of equating an entire minority with a security threat.
Municipalities where Roma settlements are located receive several million euros from the state every year, which they should have spent on financing the support and integration of Roma. This is money that is primarily intended to improve living conditions in these settlements.
But in practice, this is far from the case. One such example is the municipality of Ribnica, which has been led since 2018 by Samo Pogorelc, recently one of the mayors who has been the loudest in demanding measures from the state in connection with the “Roma issue”. He became known to the wider public in June this year when he was attacked and injured by two members of the Roma community at a firefighter’s party. This was after he declared that he would not provide water to Roma who refuse to integrate.
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