Category Archives: Slovenia

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma, Municipalities, and Subsidies

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Roma, Municipalities, and Subsidies

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.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and Cars

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Slovenia, Roma, and Cars

On Friday, the Roma in Krško, Slovenia, convened a meeting with the police, due to the increasing number of vehicles confiscated from Roma recently. They were told, among other things, that they were not hunting Roma, but debtors.

Really?

  • Iščemo odgovore: So res na udaru romski avti? Deklice noseče, mi molčimo? In: Svet24 TV. 16.11.2025.https://svet24.si/lokalno/dolenjska/novice/najbolj-brano-tedna-zaseg-avtomobilov-mladoletne-romske-mamice-1861568#google_vignette
News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Scary

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Slovenia: Scary

Silva Mesojedec sent a letter to the Domovina editors in which he presents his eleven-point analysis of the state of the Roma issue, its causes and possible solutions. To quote her letter:

1964: 64 Roma lived in Žabjak (census of Roma in Dolenjska).

1971: the study mentions 37 Roma families and 200 Roma.

1984: 214 Roma are mentioned.

2014: there are about 700 Roma.

Today, the number is around 1,000 Roma.

Until 1984, the state at least systematically monitored the number. Then – nothing more. This is not a coincidence, but evidence of a completely wrong attitude towards the Roma issue: if you don’t measure the problem, you don’t solve it either. There are no statistics, no strategy, no responsibility.

In brief, Roma multiply. Ever had doubts about statistics? 10% of the population in the Balkan are Roma. The 64 in 1964 was an illusion …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Minorities

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Slovenia and Minorities

An editorial on Slovenian minorities policies. Slovenia is friendly to constitutionally recognized national communities and allocates a lot of money for them. But there are no big results anywhere. Hungarians in Prekmurje are at war with each other, Italians on the Coast as well, and the sense of belonging is crumbling everywhere. Roma are even worse off.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Multipurpose Centre

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Roma Multipurpose Centre

Šentjernej councillors unanimously supported the establishment of a temporary Multipurpose Roma Centre on Trdinova cesta, only Roma councillor Brajdič abstained. He is against this.

These centres are anyhow mostly alibis.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Massacre

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Slovenia: Massacre

On July 19, 1942, partisans went to the Roma settlement in Kanižarica near Črnomelj all kidnapped all Roma, from children to old people, and burned their homes. 62 Roma, perhaps more, were driven to the deserted nomadic village of Mavrlen on the slopes of Kočevski Rog. There, in the following days, they were all systematically murdered, probably cruelly, with cold steel.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Harassment?

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Harassment?

On Saturday, October 25, 2025, the police officers of the Laško Police Station in Slovenia were informed of alleged threats at the Hotemež collection centre (Radeče municipality, ed.). A woman called the Operational Communications Centre and reported that a person of Roma appearance was threatening an employee and harassing visitors to the centre.

Police officers were dispatched to the scene and found that five people of Roma ethnicity were in the collection center. After completing the procedure, they found that no violation of public order and peace had occurred. The police carried out the identification procedure and collected the necessary information, and no additional measures were necessary.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

New Security Law

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New Security Law

Roma representatives do not oppose the proposal of the so-called Šutar Act, which was approved, but they warn that the constitutionality of some of the planned measures needs to be checked. Representative of the Črnomalj Roma Zvonko Golobič also warns of overly strict measures regarding social assistance. “These could plunge the Roma into even greater poverty,” he believes.

President of the Slovenian Roma Association Jožek Horvat Muc agrees with the adoption of measures that prevent crime and the actions that led to the law in the first place. However, he warns that the law must be drafted in such a way that the measures envisaged in it will not be constitutionally controversial, which some lawyers warn about. “Therefore, the government should submit some of the proposed measures to lawyers for review and obtain an opinion on whether they are in accordance with the constitution and legal norms,” ​​he told STA. He warns that the law will apply equally to everyone, not just the Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and New Security Law

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Slovenia and New Security Law

In the wake of the altercation and murder of a Slovene man, the Slovenian government passed a new law significantly increasing police powers to deal with criminality. Roma now fear to be victimised.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

International Romanes Day in Slovenia

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International Romanes Day in Slovenia

On the World Romani Language Day, which we mark today, the Romani community around the world and in Slovenia emphasizes the importance of preserving language as a key element of identity. Romani scholar Jožek Horvat Muc believes that “the Romani language is what tells members of the Romani community who they are and what their history was like”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Integration Programs

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Slovenia and Integration Programs

Slovenian municipalities will now have to report to the state on the use of money in which Roma live. 25 of them, received over nine million euros from the state budget for this purpose this year, the most ever. But there is no clear answer to the question of where the money ends up.

Data reveals that in previous years quite a few municipalities did not spend the money at all or spent it on something else instead of integrating Roma. This is precisely why they will now have to report to the state on the use of the money in detail on a special form.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Repressive Measures

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Repressive Measures

In the wake of the killing of a man by Roma in Slovenia, the government is planning new repressive measures. The current proposal will allow cutting social benefits to perpetrators of crimes and their families.

The Faculty of Social Work of the University of Ljubljana and the Association of Social Workers of Slovenia have described several measures from the so-called Šutar Act as unconstitutional and a departure from the principles of the welfare state. They called on the government to avoid collective punishment, stigmatization and repression of the poorest and most socially excluded groups.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Romanes 

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Romanes 

The Murska Sobota Regional and Study Library marked the upcoming World Romani Language Day, which is celebrated on November 5, with a presentation of a poetry collection and a discussion about the importance of the Romani language.

Jožek Horvat Muc said that “the Romani language is always the one that tells members of the Roma community who and what they are”. According to Horvat Muc, preserving the language is directly related to preserving the identity of the Roma community.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenian President

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Slovenian President

Following the killing of a man in Novo Mesto, news in Slovenia are full of discussion about the Roma “problem”.

President of the Slovenian Republic Nataša Pirc Musar warned in the show Odmevi on TV Slovenija that measures will have to be prepared according to the principle of ‘nothing about Roma without Roma’.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Novo Mesto

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Novo Mesto

The Slovene President Nataša Pirc Musar visited Novo mesto for the first time since the tragedy. She lit a candle in memory of Aleš Šutar who was killed recently and met with Mayor Macedoni. “If the state reacts only with repression, these are short-term solutions,” the president is convinced.

The president  “told the representatives of the Roma community that if they do not try to limit violence and criminal acts among themselves, it will not be good for them or for us. If the state only reacts with repression, these are short-term solutions. The Roma must help us with this.”

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Manifestations

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Slovenia: Manifestations

Two articles in the French press about the manifestations and fall out after a man was killed after being aggressed by Roma in Novo Mesto.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Condolences

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Condolences

Roma expressed solidarity and condolences at a rally in Črnomelj: We are not all the same. They emphasized that this was not a protest, but an expression of solidarity and condolences. They also pointed out the growing intolerance towards Roma and emphasized that not all Roma are the same.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Rifts in the Community

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Rifts in the Community

A talk with Haris Tahirović, journalist and president of the Roma association Anglunipe and president of the Roma Community Association, which is called Umbrella, about the situation of the Roma in Slovenia and we tried to answer the question of what was the cause of the tragic event in Novo mesto.

The 2007 Roma Community Act has caused considerable debate and opposition. One of the key complaints, explains Tahirović, is that it separates Roma into autochthonous and non-autochthonous, which many believe is discriminatory and causes additional divisions within an already marginalized community. Another problem is the uneven implementation of national strategies and measures. Some measures have been implemented only on paper, without any real impact on the lives of Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Integration of Roma

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Integration of Roma

In response to the Novo Mesto tragedy, the Human Rights Ombudsman strongly condemned all violence. According to the Ombudsman, the state has failed to integrate the Roma. He warned that the right to security is one of the fundamental pillars of trust in the rule of law, and added that the incident reveals deeper social and systemic problems.

“The outbreaks of violence are a reflection of systemic shortcomings,” it is written on the Ombudsman’s website. They also recalled that the Ombudsman has been warning for many years about the lack of sustainable and inclusive measures, ghettoization, spatial and social segregation, and unequal opportunities that deepen differences, strengthen mistrust, and prevent coexistence.

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