Category Archives: Slovenia

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Slovenia: A Mayor’s view

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Slovenia: A Mayor’s view

Ivan Molan has been the mayor of the municipality of Brežice since 2005, when he first ran for mayor in the by-election and was successful.

On the Roma “Issue” he says: “The laws that we mayors proposed are described as discriminatory, even racist. But we only want things to finally be sorted out. Because what is happening now in this area, that is, the criminal acts committed by certain groups against the local population are practically legalized, is unacceptable, and the greatest damage has been done to the majority Roma population. It has come to the point that people are afraid of the Roma and no longer distinguish between those who respect the law and those who commit crimes on a daily basis. However, the ruling politicians, by defending criminal activity in the sense of violating human rights, are only worsening the situation.”

No comments …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

What to say here?

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What to say here?

An editorial whose title says: “Roma everyday life: If they have mortars, will they shoot with them or what?” And it goes on in worse fashion afterwards. According to eh the article:

During the summer, firefighters, especially those from Krško, are practically on firefighting missions in Roma settlements every day. ”They are present during the arson, let alone the firefighting missions,” our reader says about the Roma.

Last week also did not go without mentioning the issues related to the Roma community. A citizen, who did not hide his indignation, believed that Roma offenders who break the law and do so repeatedly, some over and over again, should be dealt with more strictly. “They’ve been shooting with weapons a few times lately. Now they’re shooting in bursts. If they have mortars, they’ll use mortars, right? By having weapons and shooting, they’re an armed army above the rest of us. This is unacceptable. But no one in Slovenia is seriously dealing with this problem,” he said, full of disappointment.

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Southern Slovenia and Roma

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Southern Slovenia and Roma

At a meeting on “Roma issues”, the mayors of Southeastern Slovenia warned government representatives today that the security situation in the region is poor and must be resolved both through changes to laws and the actions of authorities. After the meeting, the ministry representatives expressed hope that the problems will be solved by changes to laws that they have already or will yet adopt.

What change of laws? Laws are for all, here we are speaking of laws aimed at a minority. And that is racism.

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Southern Slovenia and Roma

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Southern Slovenia and Roma

The meeting with mayors at the premises of the Novo Mesto municipality is being attended by the Minister of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Luka Mesec, the Minister of Justice Andreja Katič and the State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior Helga Dobrin, who is also the head of the working group for addressing Roma issues.

According to some media, Minister Luka Mesec, who is visiting southeastern Slovenia with a government team today, where “a chaotic situation with problematic Roma prevails”, did not visit dangerous Roma settlements.

The situation is bad, and Roma are being instrumentalised.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

New Book

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New Book

A presentation of a new books about the Roma community “The Politics of Unbelonging” by authors Andreja Zevnik and Andrew Russell is being presented in the Provincial and Study Library of Murska Sobota, Slovenia.

The book shows, using examples from Slovenia and the EU, how national and European policies in practice consolidate the marginal status of Roma. Although Roma are constitutionally recognized in Slovenia, they lack actual political power for co-determination, which places them in a position of semi-inclusion. Media discourses and ineffective policies, often adopted without the participation of the Roma community, only exacerbate this situation.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Maribor and Cohabitation

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Maribor and Cohabitation

There are apparently 3’500 Roma around Maribor, Slovenia. This radio article looks into the cohabitation of Roma and non-Roma. It aims to report on the shortcomings in integration and on what steps are still needed for greater inclusion, education and employment of Roma.

How about reduction is racism?

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Letter to Minister

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Letter to Minister

Neighbours of a Roma settlement wrote to the Slovene Minister Luka Mesec. They said: “In the village community of Mihovica (Šentjernej municipality), we are following your visits to Roma settlements in Slovenia and your statements about constitutional rights. Meanwhile, we are dealing with a much more basic question every day – how to survive with approximately 100 residents of Roma settlements, whose behaviour represents a serious security threat to our community.”

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Multi-Purpose Community Centres

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Multi-Purpose Community Centres

The contract for a new community centre in the Boris Kidriča Settlement was signed. It is a project co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund. The aim is to promote the integration of the Roma population into the school system, as this is a basic condition for us to no longer talk about the “Roma issue” in the future, but about Roma integration. Workshops and other programs, starting in September, will be prepared for it by a special expert team. “Let’s hope that’s the case,” says the mayor, emphasizing that this is not a new Roma settlement, but an educational space.

Well, fingers crossed …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

Minister of Labor, Family and Social Affairs Luka Mesec visited Novo mesto today before the start of the new school year. He then had a working meeting at the rotovž, and then with program providers in the Roma settlement of Brezje, the Centre for Social Work Dolenjska and Bela Krajina and representatives of elementary schools in the local Brezje. Well, while this happened,  Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni held a working meeting with Minister of Justice Andreja Katič at the municipality today.And there was a different tone there.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma in Maribor

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Roma in Maribor

According to the article, the Maribor Roma community is specific, as it is largely Muslim and therefore, according to some sources, even more introverted and patriarchal, and the Roma women in it are doubly underprivileged.

No comments, but this is pandering to stereotypes.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma “Incidents”

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Slovenia and Roma “Incidents”

Two articles in the Slovene press about shootings with automatic weapons and stolen cattle in the Šentjernej region of Slovenia.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Maribor and Roma

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Maribor and Roma

In Maribor the Romano Pralipe Roma Association presented the challenges and opportunities of the Roma community. The initiative for a joint action plan with local institutions received support. The president of the association, Fatmir Bechiri, pointed out that approximately 3,500 Roma live in Maribor and the wider area, so cooperation with the local community is of key importance.

“If there were no local community, the position of Roma in Maribor would be greatly weakened,” he said. He also stressed that Roma in Maribor want to show activity and willingness to cooperate: “Roma in Maribor are more active and want to cooperate, they do not have the same problems as elsewhere in Slovenia.” Bechiri called for greater responsibility within the community: “The Roma community must engage as much as possible for its family. The most important things are the children’s school obligations, as well as taking care of operating costs and good cooperation with the local community.”

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Mayors and Government

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Slovenia: Mayors and Government

The mayors of Novo Mesto, Kočevje, Ribnica and Črnomelj have harshly condemned the video of Minister of Labor Luka Mesco, which he recorded in the Roma settlement of Pušča in Prekmurje. According to them, it contains false and offensive statements. In it, the minister says, among other things, that we have mayors in Dolenjska who have been in office for 20 years, but have never even been to a Roma settlement. He holds Pušča, a model Roma settlement, up as an example regarding kindergarten attendance and employment, and says that this should be transferred to Dolenjska. The mayors demand explanations for his statements, especially which mayor he was talking about and why he has not done anything to solve the Roma problem in three years. They also invite him to Roma settlements in southeastern Slovenia, but not to film where things are functioning.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Mayors and Roma

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Slovenia: Mayors and Roma

The mayors of Novo Mesto, Črnomelj, Kočevje and Ribnica have once again stressed the need for increased employment of Roma before a session of the government working group for addressing Roma issues. In their assessment, work is not paying off for the majority of the Roma population due to “disincentive social legislation”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

A Massacre

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A Massacre

According to the article, early in the morning on Sunday, July 19, 1942, partisans from the Bela Kranjska Detachment surrounded the Roma settlement of Kanižarica pri Črnomelj. They woke up the still sleeping residents and ordered them to gather on the road, while at the same time they began to burn down their homes. Only a few managed to escape, and all the rest were driven past Dragovanje vas towards Doblička Gora and Mavrlen on a rainy Sunday morning.

Two days later, all these prisoners, including women and children, including babies, were killed in the forest near Mavrlen. According to an Italian report, 61 Roma were taken away at that time, but some reports believe that there were many more.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Assistant

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Roma Assistant

The Slovene government has specified what “Roma Assistants” in the context or primary schools are. One outraged lady was complaining that this was discriminatory, and got the full legal explanation of this job and its description.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Community Centres

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Slovenia and Community Centres

The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has selected four projects for the establishment of nine centres across the country within the framework of a public tender for co-financing a network of multifunctional Roma centres, worth a total of 4.9 million euros.

Two of these will also start operating in Pomurje, in the area of Lendava and Murska Sobota, by the end of this year.

One can rightfully ask if those projects will really further integration in view of the current mood in the country about Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Politics, and Roma

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Slovenia, Politics, and Roma

The Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has responded to the accusations of the regional civil initiative of South-Eastern Slovenia, which claims that the ministry is not active enough in solving the Roma issue.

The ministry emphasizes that the Roma issue has long been the subject of shifting responsibility between the local and state levels. Nevertheless, they highlighted some concrete activities that have been implemented. Minister Mesec is the first to actively tackle this issue, namely leading an informal government interdepartmental coordination, whose work is bringing visible changes. Important changes have been introduced in the field of education, where the Primary School Act has been amended, and the Kindergarten Act is also in the process of being amended. Roma assistants are now present in schools and kindergartens.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

In the settlement Žabjak near Novo mesto, Roma attacked and stoned utility workers yesterday while performing a mandatory public service – collecting waste, announced the director of Komunala Novo mesto Bojan Kekec.

Not one of those articles asks the question as to why these attacks occur. Seems that this is what they consider as “normal” among Roma.

Bad.

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