Slovenia
Slovenia, located in Central Europe, was the first republic to secede from Yugoslavia in 1991. It performs in the high range in Representation and Rights, and it exhibits mid-range performance in Rule of Law and Participation. Performance in the latter two categories approaches the border of high performance. Over the last five years, Slovenia has experienced notable advances in Effective Parliament, Access to Justice, Civil Liberties, Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Association. Today, Slovenia is leading Central Europe in economic performance, boasting an open economy that relies heavily on foreign trade, chiefly with neighbouring EU member states.
In the years after independence from Yugoslavia, the country’s cultural, economic and political proximity to Central and Western Europe contributed to a national identity simultaneously pulled towards these neighbours and towards neighbours in the Balkans. Today, Slovenian society is divided along conservative and liberal, or traditional and modern values. Political competition in Slovenia is mainly structured around an urban-rural cleavage, where the right broadly represents the rural and religious voter base. The majority of religious adherents in Slovenia are Catholic, and the Catholic Church plays an active role in politics, vocal in particular in political debates on abortion. The country’s minority groups include Roma, Albanian, Bosniak, Croat, and Serb communities, as well as Hungarian and Italian minorities recognised in the post-independence Constitution. Slovenian political cleavages also overlap with attitudes towards the country’s communist legacy: the conservative right has its roots in the anti-communist movement. In recent years, the salience of immigration has been on the rise in the eyes of Slovenian voters, and the politicization of immigration has tapped into the wider conservative-liberal divide in society.
Slovenia consistently performs in the mid-to high range on gender equality, and significant improvements were seen over the last year. These can be attributed to progress made in Slovenian women’s parliamentary representation. Persistent challenges to gender equality include the gender pay gap and violence against women, as well as intersectional discrimination that Roma women face. Meanwhile, the recent legalization of same-sex marriage and joint adoption have signaled progress on LGBTQIA+ rights.
After a period of decline across all categories of democracy, Slovenia’s performance rebounded between 2021 and 2022. The government has enacted a series of reforms since coming to power. Media reform was high on the list of priorities, and a referendum allowed voters to endorse a plan to depoliticize public media. It will be important to watch Freedom of the Press in the years ahead to assess the effects of this plan. Relatedly, it will be important to watch Effective Parliament as the new government works to implement its platform. Furthermore, turbulence in the European economy, including inflation and the rising cost of living could yet impact Basic Welfare and people’s support for reform.
Monthly Event Reports
January 2024 | Judges protest low salaries
Slovenian judges protested for two weeks between 10 and 24 January, processing only urgent cases and cancelling hearings according to their own discretion. The Association of Judges has cited the government’s failure to implement a June 2023 Constitutional Court ruling, which found that judges’ salaries were too low and in violation of the principle of judicial independence and the separation of powers. The ruling considered that judges’ salaries are not regulated in a comparable way to salaries in other branches of government, and underlined the need to protect judges from pressure that could influence decision-making. The Constitutional Court’s decision gave the legislature six months to ensure compliance with the Constitution, which lapsed on 3 January 2024. The government has bundled the matter of judges’ salaries with a wider revision of public sector salaries, which has been delayed by the impacts of the response to severe flooding in 2023 on the state budget.
December 2023 | Culture Ministry tables media reforms
The Culture Ministry introduced a draft media bill, which would introduce new state support, regulate the use of AI, and limit media concentration. The draft bill would regulate the use of generative AI in the media by ensuring news outlets label all content created using AI, and inform audiences about their use of generative AI. The bill would further clamp down on deepfakes, which can be used in exceptional circumstances to improve media literacy for educational purposes. Penalties for violations could reach EUR 20,000. In addition, the bill foresees the creation of a National Media Council, an independent body of experts whose role would be to protect the public interest in the media and debate media legislation, to be proposed by the government and appointed by the National Assembly. The bill will be open to public consultation until 31 January 2024.
October 2023 | Parliament initiates constitutional reform regarding judicial appointments
Parliament voted to initiate proceedings for constitutional amendments which would transfer the responsibility for final say on judicial appointments from the Parliament to the President. The Judicial Council would continue to select and propose candidate judges. The proposal, tabled in September 2022, was approved with 61 votes in favour and 25 votes against and is intended to safeguard judicial independence. Judges would be subject to a three-year probation period, as opposed to the present system of automatic lifetime appointments. The changes would not apply to Constitutional Court judges. As a next step, the parliamentary constitutional commission is tasked with finalising the draft bill before it is put to a vote in Parliament. The EU’s recent Rule of Law report encouraged Slovenia to ensure that the reform contains adequate safeguards for judicial independence. Experts have said that the President’s discretionary power for judicial appointments must be constrained, proposing an obligation to justify any decision to reject a candidate.
June 2023 | Law on management of public broadcaster passes constitutional review
The Constitutional Court approved the passing of amendments to the law on public broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV SLO) after reviewing contested parts of the law. In May, the Court lifted a temporary suspension which had blocked the implementation of amendments to restructure the management of RTV SLO. That amendment transferred management to a council appointed by civil society representatives and RTV SLO employees, whereas the previous supervisory board members were appointed by the National Assembly. Media freedom groups lauded the ruling as enabling the public broadcaster to “rebuild its editorial independence and carry out its public service mission free from political interference,” while noting remaining challenges including a staffing crisis, funding problems, and public distrust.
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GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022
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