Slovenia has passed a deeply discriminatory law against the country’s Roma minority. Called the Sutar Law, it was born from a bill announced by the Slovenian Prime Minister, Robert Golob, and approved in just two weeks by Parliament, following the murder of a Slovenian citizen last month at the hands of a Roma group. Although it does not explicitly mention this small community – it represents 0.5% of the country – it specifies that it will be applied in “high risk areas”, which includes the south-east of the country, where most Roma live.
If the Sutar law were implemented – it has yet to be approved by the president of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar – it would allow the country’s police to search homes and vehicles without a prior court order in “specific circumstances”; it would authorize audiovisual surveillance with drones and cameras in “security risk areas” and restore automatic license plate recognition (banned since the Constitutional Court declared it unconstitutional in 2018).
The law also provides for changes in judicial matters, including the possibility for judges to take into consideration inadmissible evidence if the seriousness of the crime requires it; extend the duration of preventive detention by up to three years and limit legal aid. It also provides for cuts in social assistance to families whose children do not attend schools and limitations on the rights of underage mothers who, if they are under 15 years old, will have to undergo an assessment by the Center for Social Assistance to determine whether the child should be placed under protection.
The Sutar Law – whose name refers to the victim murdered at the end of October, Ales Sutar, 48, in Novo Mesto – arrives a few months before the next parliamentary elections in Slovenia, scheduled for March 2026. In them, the current governing party, Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda), by Golob, risks a possible defeat against the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka), right-wing nationalist party, led by former Prime Minister Janez Jansa.
Although there was no explicit reference to the Roma community, the experts and NGOs consulted see the new rule as a direct threat to that population. Mensur Haliti, vice-president of the Rome Foundation for Europe, argues that “the law does not need to mention Roma to target them disproportionately.” To deduce this, the facts of last month, the territorial delimitation chosen and the imprecision of the terms used in the law are enough, according to Haliti.
“It’s obviously an anti-Roma law,” agrees Jonathan Lee, director of advocacy and communications at the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC). “The living conditions in some Roma communities, especially in the south-east, are nothing to envy,” he claims. Lee explains that “access to clean running water is limited if not non-existent, (there are areas) without electricity or with dangerous connections made with metal cables, basic infrastructure for waste collection and public lighting is lacking. Access to adequate education is also limited.”
Another axis of discrimination in these communities is, says the expert, the lack of legalization of informal housing. “It made these places get worse and worse,” he says.
A report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), published on 30 October this year, highlights that “discrimination and social exclusion of a large part of the Roma population persist, especially in the south-east of the country”, an area already mentioned by Prime Minister Golob as one in which the government must act.
The ECRI report highlights that, despite the implementation of a national program for the inclusion of Roma in Slovenian society for the period 2021-2030, “there has been little or no progress in reducing the number of Roma settlements that do not have access to basic services (such as drinking water, sanitation and electricity)”. It adds that “the health disparities of Roma are a cause for concern” and “believes that the current Roma integration strategy lacks specific measures and clear health indicators”.
Amnesty International Slovenia’s campaign consultant, Kristina Bozic, believes that the “very precarious” situation of Roma settlements or their lack of integration into Slovenian society, as well as “the geographical segregation which also translates into the social, economic and educational sphere” of that community, is contrary to the fundamental values and rights of the EU, of which the Balkan country has been part since 2004. “It is something that Slovenia cannot be proud of,” she condemns.
Presenting the new package of measures on the 6th, Prime Minister Golob concluded the announcement by adding that the government activated Article 37 of the Defense Law “on the basis of a plan prepared by the police”, which allows this body to request the support of members of the country’s armed forces to carry out “a series of very limited tasks at the border”. “This will make it possible to strengthen the police with the human resources of the Slovenian Armed Forces,” he concluded.
Even if the Slovenian government reiterates that the law is not aimed at that minority of the country’s population, its critics, such as Haliti, ask for guarantees: “Yesterday (Tuesday) I asked the Prime Minister directly on national television whether this law is truly neutral and who in the (Slovenian) government can credibly guarantee that these extraordinary police powers will not be applied disproportionately and selectively in Roma communities, especially in areas that the state already classifies as “at risk for security”. There is no such guarantee, such as guarantees. prevent discriminatory application in practice?”
The Roma community is officially recognized by the Slovenian Constitution and ECRI estimates that there are between 7,000 and 12,000 people belonging to this minority living in the Republic of Slovenia. However, he points out that a survey carried out in 2022 shows that around 10% of those interviewed in the country believe that Roma are the most discriminated against. During a visit to the country in 2024, a delegation from that Commission recorded that several interviewees believe that there is an unjustified difference in treatment towards so-called non-native – i.e. non-native – Roma which significantly limits their participation in political life at the local level.
