We could all easily be ‘Aco’: Slovenia’s controversial new law seeks to address the challenge of Roma integration
Novo Mesto, Slovenia. Image by Andrej via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
In early October, Slovenians were stunned by the vicious murder of 48-year-old Aleš Šutar, a pub owner in the southeastern city of Novo Mesto who was more popularly known by his nickname, Aco. The killing took place outside the LokalPatriot nightclub after Šutar received a message from his son who said he was being threatened by a group of men. After he arrived on the scene, a group of men attacked Šutar, who was left with serious head trauma and ultimately succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
Initially the police arrested 21-year-old Sabrijan Jurkovič who is part of the Roma community in Novo Mesto. He was already known to the police for crimes he committed as a minor, including property offences and the sexual assault of a person younger than 15. However, he was released on December 12 because of a lack of evidence. The police have since arrested his 20-year-old cousin, Samire Šiljić, based on the testimony of six witnesses. Šiljić is alleged to have dealt the fatal blow to Šutar, while he was on weekend release from the Radeče Correctional Home, a facility for young offenders.
The case is primarily relying on eyewitness testimony because there is no CCTV coverage of the murder. Should the suspect be convicted of murder, current Slovenian law states he could serve a jail term of between five and 15 years.
Following Šutar’s untimely death, Slovenia’s Justice Minister Andrea Katic and Interior Minister Bostjan Poklukar resigned and stated in separate letters that they want to “contribute to the calming of the situation”, with both “assuming objective responsibility.” Their resignations were not solely related to the murder, but also to broad systemic failures regarding the integration of the Roma peoples into Slovenian society. Prime Minister Robert Golob, who leads the center-left Freedom Party, rushed to quell dissent by expressing concern the murder could be used to stoke ethnic hatred against the Romani people: “There must be no room for exploiting the tragedy with the aim of creating division or calling for a reckoning.”
Slovenia has been grappling with its inability to integrate part of the Roma community, as well as smaller portions of other minority groups. Tolerance across the nation has weakened, with a survey last year finding as much as 55 percent of respondents saying they wouldn’t like to have Roma as their neighbors, although a majority thought that Slovene attitudes toward the ethnic group were neither tolerant nor intolerant.
The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, meanwhile, noted in its 2025 report that incidents of hate speech are both prevalent and underreported due to a lack of trust in public institutions. In Slovenia, hate speech is only considered criminal if it “can jeopardize and disturb public law and order.”
Following protests over the murder, Slovenia’s government introduced the Measures to Ensure Public Safety Bill, also known as the Šutar Law, which would — among other measures — give police additional powers to enter neighborhoods or homes that are deemed security risks without a court order, and freeze social assistance for those who commit crimes. Golob said the law is about protecting victims and children and changing the categorization of petty crimes to misdemeanors so as to “eliminate the feeling of inviolability and impunity” that repeat offenders in southeastern Slovenia have.
In mid-November, parliament unanimously passed the law. The European Commission, which opposes all forms of discrimination including “anti-Gypsyism,” reacted by urging Slovenia to ensure the law’s enforcement doesn’t “disproportionately affect any community.”
A tale of two communities
Romani peoples living in Western Europe have broadly struggled with integration, with many community members involved in petty theft or other crimes. While large numbers of Roma are estimated to have criminal records, poverty and employment discrimination are some of the contributing factors behind these figures.
In Slovenia, the community is noticeably split between those who reside in the country’s southeastern part, such as in Dolenjska, Bela Krajina and Posavje, and have low rates of integration, school completion, language, and employment, and those known as Prekmurje Roma, who are situated in northeastern Slovenia. There, integration of Roma has made positive strides. In the town of Murska Sobota, for example, people regularly pay their taxes, citizens consciously improve themselves in line with their neighbors, and there is even a street named ‘Delavska Ulica’ (‘Workers’ Street’), because all Roma residents are employed.
In an interview with the daily newspaper Dnevnik a few weeks after Šutar’s death, the president of the forum of Roma Councillors, Darko Rudaš, commented on the collective punishment that occurs when a Romani person commits a crime, and why differences exist between the two communities: “In Prekmurje, the Roma were provided with the conditions and opportunities to develop…in the southeast, communities have been left on the street to so-called civil initiatives.” While advocating for the lifting of restrictions on municipalities to invest in informal settlements so that poverty and unemployment levels can be reduced, he did acknowledge that the employment opportunities provided to the Prekmurje group are based across the border in Austria.
Jernej Zupančič, who teaches at the University of Ljubljana, believes isolation of the community breeds crime problems, including those that spawn from a “breakdown in traditional Roma society.” Along with other academics, he agrees that poor leadership in Roma settlements helps worsen the situation and stresses that such problems are not limited to Romani citizens.
The majority of Slovenians learn about Romani people through media articles, which are typically skewed towards the cultivation of a negative image. The amplification of negative stories and the absence of positive ones, along with an atypical lifestyle, further deepen the “us versus them” divide.
In a Peace Institute report which looked into hate crimes in the country, Roma were found to be one of the most vulnerable groups; within the community, young girls faced increased rates of violence and discrimination. The team behind the report conducted interviews with various professionals, including a sociologist and counselor who deals with victim support and gender based violence, who confirmed that local social centers and schools are absolving themselves of responsibility when confronted with child marriage.
Legislative developments
On November 26, President Natasa signed off on the bill and it became law. Reaction was fierce and peppered with accusations that the law threatens “democratic reliability” and “treats identity as suspicion.”
Amnesty International condemned the measure as “draconian” and said the law could result in further marginalization of the Roma as it allows authorities to skirt the safeguards that are in place.
While stressing that the legislative developments are not reflective of problems within any ethnic group or community, the pace of the reforms reflect a desire to enact change after a murder committed by a Romani person.
The law’s implementation occurs at a precarious time for the Golob government, coming off the back of a defeat in the recent assisted dying referendum, and with spring elections looming large. Public opinion polls consistently show that the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) may well be poised to take power.
Delivering justice and promoting integration
Screenshot of a Facebook post by the Police Directorate in Novo Mesto subjected to sarcastic comments. Out of over 1900 reactions over 930 are “haha” smiley, with 830 “likes.” Fair use.
Social media commentary has lampooned what it considers to be a two-tiered justice approach to dealing with Roma who commit crimes. Comments on a Facebook post made by the Police Directorate in Novo Mesto mocked the claims police made about ensuring public safety: “[U]ntil [the] next election…then everything will be the old way” and “[S]upposedly you’ve strengthened radar controls, I can’t find a connection [between that] and the current security situation in the area.”
Some of the comments also demanded confiscation of [illegal] weapons from residents of Roma settlements. On November 9, N1 TV reported that police seized automatic rifles, several pistols and ammunition there.
Citizens have also decried the rhetoric encouraging integration and understanding as empty in nature, suggesting that it allows politicians to suppress real concerns within communities. This may be a reflection of the plan outlined in Slovenia’s National Roma Integration Strategy 2021-2030, which promotes helping communities develop multidisciplinary groups to address issues and implementing action plans for Roma communities.
To date, however, the efforts have not resulted in closer integration, with even Romani activists saying the social strategy has stalled. Earlier this year, legislation was amended to attempt to curb school absenteeism rates among children by substituting cash for child benefits in a move that was said to target Roma, despite the law applying to all Slovenian children.
To create positive change within Roma groups, advocacy has encouraged supporting those who complete a certain level of education to take on meaningful roles and be given opportunities to succeed. The misunderstanding of why the enforcement of criminal behavior that results from ghettoization does not produce less crime has yet to be probed. Throwing money at the problem without strategic goals in mind leaves unresolved issues and fails to bridge trust gaps between societies with isolated ethnic factions.
