SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Days Before Leaving Office, Janša Manages To Get Convicted

The odious affair of Janez Janša slandering two female journalists finally reached some sort of conclusion yesterday. Only days before leaving office, the outgoing PM was sentenced to a three-months suspended prison sentence. But it looked right up to the fucking end he will get away with labeling Eugenija Carl and Mojca Šetinc Pašek as prostitutes.

A map of Europe representing Slovenia as the only country whose prime minister (Janez Janša) is a convicted criminal. — *It’s funny because it’s true. (source)*

Namely, the story of Marshal Twito verbally assaulting the then-duo of journalists (Šetinc Pašek was since elected MP) is, in fact, two interwoven stories. On one hand, it is the tale of Janša’s self-described war on the media, that has earned him a lot of bad press. But at the same time, it is also a tale of Janša’s legal subterfuge and general disregard for the judicial system. The same judicial system he so frequently rails against as being out to get him.

Muddy Hollows Seats A New Parliament

Slovenian parliament constitutes for a new term today, kicking off a power-transfer process at the end of which Janez Janša will be looking at the PM’s office from the outside in. When that milestone is reached, Robert Golob of Gibanje Svoboda party will become the tenth person in history with an Outlook footer that says “Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia”.

Inaugural session of the new Slovenian parliament. All 90 MPs were present as were many onlookers. President Pahor opened the new parliament. — *New parliament in session (photo: Matija Sušnik/National Assembly)*

Golob spent the past weeks busily getting all of his ducks in a row. He concluded a coalition agreement with Tanja Fajon of SD and Luka Mesec of Levica. In the process he probably saved the former’s ass and gave the latter a chance of a lifetime. Somewhat surprisingly, SAB and LMŠ leaders Alenka Bratušek and Marjan Šarec get to play along, too.

Apr`es Moi, Le Déluge

News broke this afternoon that Studio City, the iconic RTVSLO programme, long a thorn in the side of soon-to-be-ex PM Janez Janša and his cronies, is to have its host Marcel Štefančič, jr. axed and its format radically altered. This, obviously, was not entirely unexpected.

Marcel Štefančič, host of Studio City, circa 2013. — *Studio City and its host Marcel Štefančič, jr., circa 2013 (photo by yours truly)*

All the evidence pointed to something like this. Not in the least because the outgoing regime and its recently-installed peons at RTVSLO spent the last couple of months dismantling every single bit of programming that dared look at the government with a critical eye. Studio City was right at the top of that list. However, that it should be done on 3 May, the World Press Freedom Day, is – not to be too direct – sadistic.

Robert Golob Wins Slovenian Election: The Fuck Just Happened?

OK, so the “just” in the title is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, seeing as it has been nearly 72 hours since Robert Golob taking Janez Janša to the cleaner’s became global news. But still, Marshall Twito being defeated at the ballot box by a political adversary he himself had created, for the second time, is a big fucking deal.

Gibanje Svoboda led by Robert Golob threw a party after the election results were in. — *Party at Gibanje Svoboda electoral HQ after the results came in (source)*

But, wait, did pengovsky really state that Golob took Janša to the cleaner’s? He did? Well… In fact, the Glorious Leader and (some of his) minions even slightly increased their MP count. It is just that Robert Golob and his newly-minted party Gibanje Svoboda (GS) won basically all the other marbles, ending up with 41 MPs in a 90-seat parliament. Reader, it was a blow-out.

Crunch Time in Slovenian Election

With parliamentary election in Muddy Hollows in T-minus-two-weeks, we are finally at crunch time. The stage of the campaign where things start to matter. This is not to say that things didn’t matter before. Until now, however, the parties and their leaders were busy with laying the groundwork, setting up a favourable narrative and testing messaging. They have two weeks left for everything to come together.

Crunch time beckons in Slovenian parliamentary election. Politico Europe's poll of polls indicates stable support accross the board. — *Politico Europe’s Poll of Polls for Slovenia (source)*

Public opinion polls will also become much more relevant in the next fortnight. Until now, the things to watch were mostly trends. As of now, however, numbers will become important, too. But most importantly, whatever room parties and their leaders had for various campaign mishaps is rapidly disappearing. From now on, every fuck-up could be fatal.