SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

The Restaurant at the End of the (Left-Liberal) Universe

The history of every major political party in Muddy Hollows tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question ‘How can we run the government?’ the second by the question ‘Why do we run the government?’ and the third by the question ‘Where shall we have lunch‘?

Robert Golob hosted leaders of left-liberal parties at a posh restaurant in Ljubljana. Everyone came and agreed to play nice. — *PM Golob welcoming playing host at an admittedly posh restaurant (source)*

With apologies to Douglas Adams, there simply is no better way to describe today’s huddle of the six parties comprising the left-liberal half of the Slovenian political spectrum. To an untrained eye, the lunch date may have seemed like an overture to tighter political collaboration or even semi-unification. In reality, these guys went to lunch because they were hungry.

Slovenian Election To Be Held On 22 March, Says The Prez

Parliamentary election in Muddy Hollows is scheduled for 22 March this year. This is the gist of a decree president Nataša Pirc Musar signed earlier today. The date is not a surprise as NPM said as much just before Christmas. But it does mean that as of today the game is officially afoot.

President Nataša Pirc Musar set 22 March this year as election day for electing a new Slovenian parliament. — *President Pirc Musar signing the election decree (photo: Bor Slana/STA)*

Both readers of course know that the game has actually been afoot at least since October. The only real casualty here is pengovsky’s slightly tongue-in-cheek projection of 8 March as election date. But for that to happen, a lot of things would have to fall in place. Including a pliant president. And we know how things are in that department.

Court Hobbles Health Reform, But There’s A Catch

In what could arguably be described as a Christmas Eve dump (or a Christmas miracle, depending on your point of view), the constitutional court hobbled a key piece of PM Robert Golob’s much-vaunted health reform. Apparently, Santa is not the only one to have a naughty and nice lists. Slovenian constitutional court has them, too. Sometimes in the same ruling.

Constitutional court annulled a key provision of the health reform by the government of Robert Golob. But it also threw him a lifeline. — *Constitutional Court provided some Christmas cheer for some. For others, not so much (source)*

That said, the court also upheld a different part of the same law, as well as deferred ruling on other points of the challenge at a later date. There are probably good reasons for this, but pengovsky would also like to think that the court decided to split the difference on key issues, kick the rest of the can down the road and tried to be home by dinner. It is Festivus, after all.

10 Takeaways From Assisted Dying Referendum Whoopass

On Sunday, Slovenians rejected the law on assisted dying. When the referendum dust settled, the NO campaign of Aleš Primc and a host of other organisations pulled in a respectable 54 % of the vote amid a near-historic 41% turnout. This means they easily cleared both hurdles needed for rejection of the law. They won a majority which also represented more than 20% of all eligible voters.

The final results of the referendum vote on the law on assisted dying. — *The final referendum tally (source: DVK)*

To say that the result came as a shock to many in the YES camp would be an understatement. Going into the final days of the campaign, proponents of the law were oozing optimism backed by some very favourable polling. But then the numbers started rolling in. Pengovsky didn’t share this optimism to begin with, so here are ten takeaways from the Sunday whoopass.

Referendum On Assisted Dying

On Sunday, the good people of Muddy Hollows will vote in a referendum on assisted dying. But pengovsky, either reader might exclaim, didn’t you guys already vote on that some time ago? The answer to which is, yes, yes we did. And now we’re doing it again. Only this time shit got dead serious.

Back in June 2024, in conjunction with the EU elections in Slovenia the people voted in four referendums as well. One of those votes was on whether this sorry little excuse for a country should formalise the right to assisted dying. Somewhat surprisingly, the people supported the idea. Even more surprisingly, the coalition decided that it is a good idea to pass the law eight months before the elections. But a grand total of zero people were surprised when Aleš Primc announced (and secured) a referendum challenge.

Šutar Act: Robert Golob Knows A Good Crisis When He Sees One

Late Monday night, Slovenian parliament approved the Šutar Act. PM Robert Golob and his government drafted the law as a response to an incident in Novo mesto about three weeks ago, where a man was attacked outside a night club by one or more members of the Roma minority and later died of injuries sustained in the brawl. But it is also much more than that.

Robert Golob outlined the Šutar Act only days after the fatal incident involving Roma attackers in Novo mesto, during a tense session of the city council. The law was passed earlier this week. — *Robert Golob durint the tense session of Novo mesto city council (source: STA YouTube)*

For some time, tensions between the majority Slovenian and minority Roma populations in Dolenjska region have been running high. A combination of crime (petty and otherwise), failure of integration policies, welfare abuse and bog-standard chauvinism have turned every interaction between the two groups into a flashpoint. And then the point flashed. Bigly.