A slip of a tongue by Jože Tanko
I love this country 😀 Some time ago I quoted Robert Newman who in turn quoted an issue of The Times which – contrary to the prevalent WMD-rhetoric – unknowingly qouted true reasons for war in Iraq.
As you probably know, dear readers, this country (S-Love-Enia, can you feel it?) is currently in between Governors of Central Bank (much like some people are in between jobs, lawyers, appartaments…). After Prime Minister JJ orchestrated an assasination-of-character of the original candidate Mitja Gaspari, the Prez nominated another candidate: former minister of economy, former rector of Ljubljana University and a self-declared general pain-in-the-arse Jože Mencinger. Drnovšek later withdrew the nomination, claiming to have done so upon a strong negative response by the PM. The latter, however, denied ever having a formal confabulation with the Prez (the link is unfortunately only in Slovene). Here is a short and translated excerpt of PM’s press release:
During a press conference on February 13, Prime Minister Janez Janša denied allegations that the Government or himself ever rejected a nominee for the Governor of the Bank of Slovenia. The PM added that no formal discussion between him and the President of the Republic ever took place.
So until yesterday evening we had a dotty Prez, who claimed to have had talked with the PM and a mischevious PM, who claimed exactly the opposite.
Enter Jože Tanko, chief whip of Janša’s party SDS, who experienced a classic Freudian slip (or parapraxis) during yesterday’s press conference. In terms of Slovene politics this is also called “Shooting oneself in the knee”. Tanko’s statement can be found inside this piece by TV SLO, here is the translation:
I must deny this insinuation. Although the President did inform the Prime Minister about his choices [of the candidates for the Governor of the Central Bank] the Prime Minister advised him in good faith which procedure to follow in this matter. The fact remains that the President ignores the proposed procedure until now.
In other words, Janša and Drnovšek did talk about Menciger’s nomination. At least according to Tanko 🙂 Liar, liar, pants on fire…
