SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Culture War Referendums, Part Two

More on referendums this Sunday. Contrary to the legislative referendum (see Part One in the series), there is no turnout or quorum requirement in a consultative referendum. It’s a straight-up whichever-side-gets-more-votes type of situation.

A really sad mock-up ballot in a follow-up to the four referendums on Sunday, This time we do votes on RTV SLO, welfare benefits and voting rights of third-country nationals. It all boils down to decency. — Another mock referendum ballot. This one is even worse.

In addition, results of a consultative referendum are, as the name suggests, wholly legally non-binding. In theory, they are politically binding, but going on recent experience, a popular vote suggesting a certain policy direction is not worth a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys, if it doesn’t align with a per-existing government agenda.

Culture War Referendums, Part One

To say that Janez Janša’s ruling right-wing coalition is making a mess of things would be an understatement. Firstly, this here blog abhors using such milquetoast language, so the correct term would be incompetent twats. Secondly, despite appearances to the contrary, Janša’s minority government is shaky as fuck. In fact, judging by the last couple of weeks, his coalition partners keep picking up bad weeks to quit sniffing glue.

Slovenians will vote in four referendums this Sunday, each referendum more damaging to democratic values than the other. On the picture is a sample referendum ballot. — *A referendum ballot (photo by yours truly)*

And thirdly, whatever coherent policy they had is locked up in a referendum bid against the Logar/Vrtovec omnibus bill. And having apparently hit “empty” in their ideas tank about two weeks after taking office, the Glorious Leader and his ilk are doing the one thing they always knew how to do. Wage culture wars. Which is why the good people of Muddy Hollows will vote in four referendums this Sunday, each more damaging to democratic values than the other.

Zoran Stevanović And The Truthers

No, this is not a blog post about Zoran Stevanović and his high school rock band. Primarily because there’s no record of Zoran Stevanović ever being a part of, let alone leading a high school rock band. But also because, in the unlikely event of Zoran Stevanović leading a band in high school (or at least being a part of one), rock is not exactly the genre one would put him in.

Zoran Stevanovič and Resnica were in the news a lot lately. He is in way over his head, Boris Mijić is still around and Katja Kokot is the only one having fun. Also in the picture are Aleksander Štorek and Nedeljko Todorović. — *(With apologies to The High School Reunion. I hear they’re great, book them here*)

If Stevo had a band, it would be a cheap pop wall-of-sound act. In mono. Much like his party. And like Phil Spector, wall-of-sound inventor and music industry’s biggest asshole by a country mile, Stevo is cranking up the volume and compression. All in an attempt to hide the fact that Resnica are a bunch of lying insignificunts who took the most toxic and corrupt traits in Muddy Hollows politics and ran with it. Unsurprisingly, it turns out they suck at that, too.

President Pirc Musar And Her Slow Moving (Communications) Car Crash

Almost two weeks ago, president Nataša Pirc Musar was involved in a car crash while travelling in a motorcade. She suffered a broken collarbone while one of the other two passengers suffered a more serious injury.

President Nataša Pirc Musar was injured in a car crash two weeks ago. Then a communications car crash followed which made things even worse. — *Presidential palace. The car in front is not part of president Pirc Musar’s motorcade (photo by pengovsky)*

The driver/bodyguard in the president’s van was also slightly injured and apparently there was a non-insignificant amount of material damage. Also not-insignificantly damaged was the notion of at least semi-competent official communication at the highest levels of the state. And much of the blame lies with the president herself.

Constitutional Court OKs Referendum On Logar And Vrtovec Omnibus Law

Technically, the entire Muddy Hollows political apparatus is on vacation for at least ten more days. But on Monday the Constitutional Court put in a little overtime and brought some finding out to Jernej Vrtovec and Anže Logar fucking around back in May. That is to say, despite some provisions that affect the budget, the court allowed a referendum on the omnibus law on emergency development measures.

Main entrance to the Constitutional Court. The referendum ruling, stemming from the hubris of Jernej Vrtovec and Anže Logar could cost the coalition of Janez Janša dearly. — *Constitutional Court, where the magic happened (photo by yours truly)*

The law was passed even before Janez Janša had his majority in the parliament and was seen as an early test of the would-be coalition. And yet, the Glorious Leader and his finance minister Andrej Šircelj are probably quite happy it will (in all likelihood) get shot down in a mid-November referendum. Though each of them for different reasons. Allow pengovsky to explain.

Will Zoran Janković Finally Meet His Match?

Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković is about to enter the wildest four months of his political career. On Sunday, the good people of Ljubljana (dubbed Ljubljanchans at some point on this blog) will vote in a referendum on a parking ordnance this coming Sunday. Exactly four months later, that same crowd will vote in local elections. In both cases, mayor Janković is, surprisingly (perhaps even to himself), forced to fight some rearguard action.

Zoran Jankovič and Tone Rop in a hot-mic moment, where Rop snaps at Janković, saying that if it weren't for him, Janković would never have become CEO of Mercator retail chain. — *Tone Rop being pissed off at Zoran Jankovič back in 2002 (source)*

The parking ordnance referendum simply refused to go away, despite Zoki’s legal maneuvering. In addition, he also seems to have finally drawn a worthy challenger in the autumn election. While names like Luka Mesec and Urška Klakočar Zupančič are being tested and retested as potential candidates, the one name that probably really rattled the mayor’s cage is former PM Tone Rop.

Miha Jazbinšek (1941 – 2026)

Miha Jazbinšek died two weeks ago, at the age of 85. Both readers of this blog probably don’t know (much) about him but pengovsky would be remiss if didn’t write this one up. Sure, he was one of the OG democratically elected ministers in Muddy Hollows. He was also one of the handful of Slovenian politicos to have a law named after themselves. But after exiting the natioanl stage, he had a long, loud and lonely career in Ljubljana city council where this blogger covered him for more than a decade.

Miha Jazbinšek during a press conference in 2009. — *Miha Jazbinšek being meticulous back in 2009 (source)*

There Jazbinšek seemingly felt most at home with his particular breed of obstinate progressive liberalism. And if that sounds like a contradiction in terms, congratulations, you’ve just met Jazzby. He drove successive mayors including Zoran Janković up the wall with his relentless debates, pointed criticism and – at least once – disagreeing with what he said minutes ago and asking for procedural time to rebut his own debate.