Antonio Tajani And The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Despite the outrage it caused in Muddy Hollows and beyond, the shitstorm triggered by European Parliament president Antonio Tajani in a speech during a commemorative event close to Slovenian-Italian border, could hardly have come at a better time. At least as far as Slovenian political landscape is concerned.

Antonio Tajani (photo by
Plamen Stoimenov/EU2018BG)

In case you missed it, the veteran politician and co-chair of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia had some choice words for the crowd gathered at Bazovica (Basovizza), a small town on the Italian side of the Slovenia-Italy border, commemorating victims of post-war massacres.

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Influencers Kick Off Campaign For EU Vote

Were it not for the hilariously hypocritical brouhaha over a couple of Instafluencers doing in the European Parliament what Instafluencers do best, one would be excused for thinking that 2019 EU elections in Muddy Hollows are eons away.

Influencing influencers (photo: European Parliament Slovenia)

Namely, as a part of their #thistimeimvoting (#tokratgremvolit) campaign, Ljubljana office of the European parliament hauled a couple of Instagram influencers to Brussels, showed them the ropes and let them take selfies with Slovenian MEPs. All in the hope of them, well, influencing their numerous followers to actually give a fuck or two about the upcoming EU vote.

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Culture Minister Becomes A Short-Timer

Remember pengovsky’s rant on how the culture porfolio is almost always an afterthought during government forming in Muddy Hollows? Well, guess what. Turns out Dejan Prešiček (Team Social Democrats) who runs the culture portfolio is seeing his political career hang by a thread due to allegations that include – does this sound familiar? – misuse of a government vehicle.

Tick-tock… Dejan Prešiček (SD) becomes a short-timer. (source)

In fact, the allegations are far more serious than that and include accusations of workplace harassment, mobbing and abuse of office by both the minister and his state secretary. Which is quite an achievement for someone who has only been in office six, nay, five months.

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Brexit: You Look Like You’ve Shat A Lego Garage

Last night’s defeat of Theresa May in the Commons made an already complicated and tense Brexit situation infinitely more fucktangular. Which was obviously cue for politicos of various ways, shapes and forms in Muddy Hollows not to resist the urge and comment on the entire shituation.

Turns out Brexit can be fully explained by quotes from The Thick Of it. (source)

This fact is mildly interesting in itsel , as Brexit was by far one of the least debated aspects of EU matters in Slovenia, a country where EU matters don’t rate high on the agenda as it is. Unless, of course, it has to do with EU funds, in which case suddenly everyone is an expert.

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Bratušek Budget Bruises Brought By Butthurt Bandelli

“I didn’t deserve this” said minister of development and European cohesion policy Marko Bandelli (SAB), butthurt as he announced his resignation on 13 November thus setting off a rocky ten-day period for the government of Marjan Šarec. And while the main event of the last few days were the 2018 local elections and some surprising results, the bad blood between various coalition members burst in the open almost as soon as the polls closed.


Marko Bandelli and Alenka Bratušek (source)

By itself, the Bandelli thing is a pretty straightforward case of the Dunning-Kruger effect in action. The erstwhile mayor of Komen, known for his colourful language and thin skin was a somewhat surprising pick for the non-descript post of assistant beancounter minister for EU cohesion funds. And indeed it turned out that the ambition got the better of him. In fact, we will never know whether Marko Bandelli would have made a good minister without portfolio in charge of EU cohesion funds, because the man turned out to be spectacularly inept at being a senior government official as such.

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