Sabotage

Marjan Podobnik, the shit-monger from Slovene-Croatian border yesterday filed for a referendum on Croatian (and Albanian) NATO membership. In this he was assisted by a marginal and non-parliamentary Party of Slovene Nation. Together they collected 2500 signatures which – if filed correctly – require the president of the parliament to declare a 35-day period during which the proponents of referendum must collect 40.000 verified signatures. The thing is that this period ends a day after the NATO summit where Croatia and Albania were to be welcomed into the alliance

Marjan Podobnik and his Blut-und-Boden friends (source)

The history of Podobnik Bros., Joško Joras, Slovene People’s Party and the Croatian border was well covered on this blog and I will not go over it again. Time and again attempts to solve the border dispute have been sabotaged either by political or para-political forces on both sides of the border.

This time, however, a sort-of-consesus seems to have been reached in top echelons of Slovene politics, that Slovenia would block Croatian EU entry until Zagreb revokes maps which set the border in the middle of Bay of Piran and possibly solve the border dispute altogether. The consensus was held hostage for a few days by former PM Janez Janša who wanted an imaginary budget surplus to be confirmed, but in the end the decision to ratify Croatian entry into NATO was confirmed by 75 out of 90 MPs.

The point Pahor’s government was trying to make is that Slovenia does have a problem with Croatian EU entry border-wise, but that this has nothing to do with Croatian NATO entry. Namely – if Croatia had managed to sneak maps defining the borders into EU negotiation process, then these maps would become part of the common European legislation, basically legalising two decades-long series of Croatian unilateral actions in this field. Croatia thought it could fuck Slovenia but instead Slovenia fucked Croatia.

NATO, however, does not have common legislation. It does have common standards (sort of) but no common legislation. Therefore even if Croatia presented faked maps, it would have little to no effect on Slovene negotiating position. Slovenia would therefore show that it knows to pick its fights and that it can distinguish between a bilateral disagreement and international security.

Hell, even Janez Janša and his SDS were on-board, albeit at a price.

And then an unruly mob of nationalistic wannabes marches in with 2500 signatures and sabotages what was probably the best attempt since Drnovšek-Račan agreement at solving a long-running dispute.

If you ask me, this is tantamount to high treason.