President stresses importance of education as she visits Roma settlement

Pirc Musar said she wanted to visit Pušča to see with her own eyes how the Roma community coexists with the rest of the population.

"I am here today to show to Slovenia that it is possible and that the Roma in Dolenjska could learn from other Roma communities how to coexist well," said Pirc Musar, adding that she also wanted to highlight the importance of education.

There will be no coexistence or progress without education, the president said, calling on the Roma to send their children to school.

"Repression must always be the last resort," said the president, adding that the deep-rooted issues of the Roma community required systemic political solutions created by the government.

"The fact that the relationship between the Roma and non-Roma population here is different than in the Dolenjska region is the result of planned systematic work that has been taking place for more than 60 years," said Borut Anželj, head of the Murska Sobota kindergarten, which opened a unit in Pušča in 1962.

Pirc Musar visited the Pušča kindergarten which currently has 20 children enrolled from both the Roma and non-Roma communities. She said the presence of the kindergarten was showing results and that the Pušča community was not only an example to other Roma communities in Slovenia but to many people around the world.