"This is a symbolic act," said the association's president, Aleksandar Todorovic, announcing that the strike would last until Saturday and that protests pointing to the problem of the-called "erased" non-Slovenes would continue until May 1, when Slovenia marks the first anniversary of its EU membership.
"We demand the implementation of the Constitutional Court's decision of April 3, 2003," said Kemal Sadik, a representative of the association.
The association represents the interests of 16,305 non-Slovenes who on February 26, 1992 lost residence in Slovenia because they failed to seek or were denied Slovene citizenship.
The head of the EU Mission in Ljubljana, Erwan Fouere, told the protesters he believed the Slovene government would solve their problem and that there were legal instruments in Europe to solve it.
The centre-left opposition parties in the Slovene parliament today protested against the decision of the ruling coalition not to discuss this issue and a report of the human rights ombudsman. Parliament speaker France Cukjati said the debate on the matter was not possible because of procedural reasons, i.e. the fact that the relevant parliamentary committee had not taken a position on the matter.
The government led by Janez Jansa claims that the issue of the "erased" non-Slovenes can be solved only case by case and through a special constitutional law that must receive two-thirds majority support. While they were in opposition last year, the parties of the ruling coalition organised a referendum at which 95 percent of voters refused a proposal by the then government to grant residence to all the erased by issuing them retroactively with residence certificates.