As part of tough pandemic measures, Slovenians have been punished for infractions as minor as eating a sandwich alone outside.
The Slovenian government is reimbursing thousands of fines issued to citizens who failed to follow mask-wearing and social distancing guidelines at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The total amount of fines imposed between March 2020 and May 2022 amounts to approximately €5.7 million. Under a law proposed by the center-left Slovenian government, the 1.7 million euros, which were actually paid as a fine, will now be refunded.
All violations will be removed from citizens’ official records, and penalty enforcement procedures will be halted.
Among the tens of thousands of people waiting for a refund is a delivery driver who was infamously photographed surrounded by police, after lowering his mask to eat a snack while sitting outside, well away away from any other person.
The images of this man, who was fined 400 euros, aroused the indignation of many Slovenes who consider that the application of measures to combat Covid by the police was excessive.
Passed in September, the bill was explicitly presented by the current Minister of Justice, Dominika Švarc Pipan, as an effort to compensate for the excesses of the police responsible for enforcing measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic , under the previous government – or, as she called it, “the injustices committed against citizens through the abuse of criminal law and the unconstitutional and excessive encroachment on human rights.”
Like many countries around the world, Slovenia has faced protests against some of its strictest pandemic measures, and not just from anti-vaccine groups.
Restrictions on movement and gatherings, as well as the requirement to wear masks outdoors, were among the measures introduced by the right-wing government.
During the last legislative elections, in April 2022, the government was replaced by a center-left coalition. One of the main themes of the campaign was public concern over the authoritarianism of the previous administration, which many Slovenes believed was taking the country down a path similar to that of Viktor Orban’s Hungary.
On the evening of his election, the current Prime Minister, Robert Golob, celebrated “a victory that will allow us to bring the country back to freedom.”
