Monday’s edition of Vroči stol (Hot Seat) apparently created quite a stir this side of the Alps. Vladimir Vodušek is generally thought to have achieved a new low in Slovene journalism and people are openly asking if the whole thing can go any lower. The answer of course is “yes“. The ultimate low will be reached when sleazebags like Vodušek will start feeling the tide turning and will turn rabid on their yesterday’s masters.
An artist’s interpretation of Vlado Vodušek 
I might be overreaching here, but I don’t think there is a journalist worthy of his/her vocation in Slovenia today who doesn’t think that Vodušek went above and beyond the call of duty to portray Prime Minister Janez Janša in the best possible light. The programme also showed in technicolor just how out of touch this government is with the 21st century. While appearnig on television and saying that things are such-and-such might have worked in late 70s, it sure does not work today. People are distrusting both politicians and media (bad political journalism includinng but not limited to Vodušek has played a part in creating this sentinment for the past decade and a half) and if the PM wants to get his story straight he better do it somewhere else than in a live TV studio, no matter how submissive the interviewer may be.
Vodušek didn’t make any friends with Monday’s show either. Even worse, as he is being ridiculed by rank-and-file journalists, Delo daily (whose editor-in-chief Vodušek grilled on the show a couple of weeks earlier) was more than happy to publish entire transcript of the show on its website, exposing Vodušek’s servitude in writing as well.
And just to top everything there was the ludicrous call-in poll which showed 83% support for Janez Janša over Borut Pahor – the usual comment out there was that it reminded the people of the times in Serbia when Slobodan Milosevic won the elections with 106% of the vote.
As I said – a new low was reached, but something tells me we didn’t hit rock bottom just yet.
You should’ve seen yesterday’s “Vroči stol” on Serbian RTS, which also featured a Vodušek-like host. When a protege of the Radical Party candidate Nikolić was making the final appeal, the producer cut from one camera to another every 2 seconds, using only long distance shots. I’ve never laughed so hard. It was followed by a programme explaing the benefits of EU entry, the daily life in Sweden and the uneployement of youth.
I guess the pro-EU forces deserve to lose this election.
I don’t unerstand howcome they didn’t make the score of the poll 59:41 (in favour of J.J.). That would be “semi” believable. Is it possible that they are so stupid??
I believe that the best is still to come. If not sooner, in Autumn. (6)
@abaris & susie q: Agreed on both counts. I mean – it’s one thing for the government to manipulate the media. That’s bad enough… But when they start doing it in an obvious and patronizing manner as if we’re stupid enough not to notice.
Who knows – maybe they do think we’re stupid.
And yes. Both Serbia and Slovenia are up for interesing times 🙂
“sleazebags like Vodušek will start feeling the tide turning and will turn rabid on their yesterday’s masters”
So you’re telling us, there are journalists in Slovenia still not aware of the turning?
I wouldn’t call them sleazebags, rather blind believers.
Actually, I don’t think that the political switch is a given. I will elaborate on that in one of the upcoming posts, but I’m more and more entertained by the idea that Janša perhaps should get a second term – just so he could fuck up big time.
As for sleazebags: Vodušek is not a believer. Neither is Rupel. Both are where the source of power is – regardless of source’s political persuasion. People like them are instrumental in politicians’ achieving their goals, because they will happily do all the dirty work.
Belivers come more in the form of Branko “Gizmo” Grims and Jože Tanko (both SDS) or Majda Potrata and Breda Pečan (both SD)
Interesting, you still think current governing option has a chance of wining elections?
For Rupel, I’d say he thinks he is the source of power, or rather power itself. And of course wisdom.
I’m just saying that the endgame has indeed begun but it is far from finished and that there are still policy and PR challenges both sides need to tackle.
Rupel: The guy had an illustrious career – foreign minister on more than one occasion, mayor of a country’s capital, ambassador to the US, an accomplished writer… If this were any other person he would be at the very least a moral and political authority others would listen to when he spoke. But few people even take him seriously, let alone listen – except those who have to. Which means that he is not the source of power, but rather an echo chamber for that source of power. And as such he is useful but nothing more.
….But few people even take him seriously, let alone listen – except those who have to….
Interesting. So he has a lot in common with the present mayor of Ljubljana who also seem to be just talking, talking and more talking (with occasional intermezzo of tears and whining) and not getting done anything really. All what we have so far seen and heard were some compliments about how wonderful was the firework during the New Year celebrations.
@Karel: Hmmmm… Given the fact that Rupel was also a mayor of Ljubljana once, you might be on to something
But seriously – you’re slightly off target here. Like it or not, Janković did more in this city than Dimitrij Rupel, Vika Potočnik and Danica Simšič combined. The fact that he has done little in absolute terms says more of the work of the said trio than of Janković.
However, if I remember correctly (and I know I do), Janković managed to close city center for traffic, passed the longterm landscaping plan (which was eight years behind schedule) and is about to finish rewamping public services. I’ve ommited the opening of Technology Park and connecting Barje to city centre, because he had little or nothing to do with it. I will not go into whether you or I agree with everything he did, but the point is that while he is indeed whining about the money the government has taken, he did get some things done in the first year of his term.
Oh, and the next time you try to bluff your way through something, check the facts first: the New Year’s fireworks in Ljubljana this year were totally invisible due to fog, so there were no compliments over it
i agree with pengovsky on this one Karel, think before you write something down…don’t just spit on everything…
But seriously – you’re slightly off target here. Like it or not, Janković did more in this city than Dimitrij Rupel, Vika Potočnik and Danica Simšič combined. The fact that he has done little in absolute terms says more of the work of the said trio than of Janković.
But does it really? Judging how 90% of the Slovenian “cocksucking” medias presented him in the past and now I was under impression that Jankovič is so competent and skilled manager that his successes in the first year of his mayorship would definately surpass in absolute terms all the achievements of his predecessors during their first years of mayorship. Oh, wait a minute… I didn’t really think that… 😉
But the reality of the situation in field speaks for itself.
The budget of the City of Ljubljana in 2007 was around 260 million €. What did he do for this money? He closed the city centre for traffic. For this he needed a decree and a couple hundred € for those cheap looking semi-automatic street pillars.
But did this solve the traffic problems in the centre of Ljubljana or the inhabitants of Ljubljana who live in the Centre? Of course it did not. It was a cheap, rash and populistic move. The crowd loves it, but in reality it hasn’t solve none of the problems that Ljubljana is having with the traffic.
However, if I remember correctly (and I know I do), Janković managed to close city center for traffic, passed the longterm landscaping plan (which was eight years behind schedule) and is about to finish rewamping public services. I’ve ommited the opening of Technology Park and connecting Barje to city centre, because he had little or nothing to do with it. I will not go into whether you or I agree with everything he did, but the point is that while he is indeed whining about the money the government has taken, he did get some things done in the first year of his term.
His next “success” was that he passed the longterm landscaping plan. How much money from the city budget did this take?
For his third success you are giving that he is about to finish rewamping public services. Another costly operation. same could be that for the city brochure for which his administration paid around €150.000 and is full of smiling pictures of smiling Jankovic doing this and doing that. He probably appeared in that brochure more times than Tito in the Bilten of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile while he is entertaining himself with his populistic press conferences, where he constantly keeps whining about 60 million € allegedly stolen from him and or being double-crossed in the Mercatore Affair the city is decaying on its own way.
Slovenia is currently at the head of the EU and did the mayor of Ljubljana do anything to make the city a little bit more suitable, id est not to look like Kisangani? of course he did not. For 260 million € in 2007 plus the money he could get from the government or EU for various projects he did not built, fix, repair or renovate anything.
He did not renovate a single facade, remove a single brick or roof tile or put a decent flowerpot if other things are too difficult for him. He did order a demolition of a building near the Telekom with a great pomp. I walked there a couple of days ago and saw what? A new cheap looking parking space with some even more looking cheap iron fence around it and a procession of fancy cars parked by the employees of the nearby Post Office and Telekom. A story of success, no doubt.
i agree with pengovsky on this one Karel, think before you write something down…don’t just spit on everything…
Spit on everything? I would spit on anything if I would have anything to spit on. But since I don’t have anything to spit on, I cannot.
As I said – you and I need not agree on whether Janković is doing good or bad things. However (and this is a point where you’re sorely mistaken), when my (yours?) mayor came to visit our prime minister the latter told him that he doesn’t need Ljubljana for the presidency because everything will be taking place on Bled, Brnik and Brdo. And when vicemayor Koželj said that they should at the very least fix facades across the street from the government building, Janša said that he doesn’t need a Potemkin’s village. That is a matter of public record.
As for the rest of your complaints against Janković – you can take it up with him. He’s pretty good at defending himself, so I’ll take no part in it.
But if you want to quibble over closing the city center for traffic, I can put together a special post on that – just for you 🙂
1. Oh, yes we are playing the “victim” now, eh? Or is it the conspiracy theory? Blaming others to hide your own incompetence was always a very easy and productive way to hide your own blunders. At least in Slovenia. But be as it may be it still doesn’t fully explain why Jankovič didn’t renovate a single house in the city or solve any of the real problems. Perhaps the answer to my question lies in the fact that he simply doesn’t need to. With the critical eye of the voters of Ljubljana who elected him, Mrs. Simsic, Mrs. Potocnik and Mr. Rupel in the last 15 years, why should he? Being a mayor of Ljubljana is like winning a subsidized trip to the Bahamas.
2. And when vicemayor Koželj said that they should at the very least fix facades across the street from the government building, Janša said that he doesn’t need a Potemkin’s village. That is a matter of public record.
Jesus Christ Allmighty!! Who runs the damn city? Janša or Jankovič and his doggy Koželj? I am sure you are all very proud to have a mayor who needs to ask a prime minister to get a permission to remove a single brick or a roof tile?
3. …pretty good at defending himself, so I’ll take no part in it.
Jankovic? Defending himself? Where?!When?! Who is here controlling who? Franklly Jankovič doesn’t need to defend himself because he has his own private army of cocksuckers who are more than willing to do that job instead of him… Of course if the price is right, but with his wallet this usually is not a problem. This is why his blunders are always depicted as great triumphs of his skills and extraordinary smartness and this is why nobody asks himself (or him) where did those 160 million € go to. So he cannot defend if nobody asks the question(s)? Not even Mr. Watermelon. 🙂
But if you want to quibble over closing the city center for traffic, I can put together a special post on that – just for you
Hey, as long as you waste your own money and time, you can take all the pleasure, my friend.
BTW: To go back to the original topic about Vodusek and his interview… Perhaps for better understanding of Vodusek’s servility and hitting the bottom of the rock you should consider of obtaining the transcription of the interviews of past Prime Ministers Rop and Drnovsek by Mrs. Tanja Staric and other notable and knowledgeable journalists. So that we can see and compare with your own eyes the “professionals” at work. You know… You know… The one who are “more fun”. 🙂
why Jankovič didn’t renovate a single house in the city or solve any of the real problems. Perhaps the answer to my question lies in the fact that he simply doesn’t need to.
You’ve answered the question yourself. In terms of pure politics he needs to do very little to appear that he is doing a lot. And all because of the ineptness of his predecesors. However, if he manages to fulfil all 22 of his pre-election projects, he will probably get full marks.
I am sure you are all very proud to have a mayor who needs to ask a prime minister to get a permission to remove a single brick or a roof tile?
Acutally, he does need consent from various government agencies because almost half of Ljubljana (and virtually all of secessionist architecture) is considered a cultural heritage. Where he doesn’t need consent from the government, he needs the consent of the owners who will have to cover most of the costs. Obviously owners are extremely uncooperative in this respect.
According to Koželj, the city is looking for a way to overcome this by ordering mandatory repairs to building shells – in cases where the owners would not or could not pay for repairs themselves the city would, but would then also become an owner of a part of the building.
This is why his blunders are always depicted as great triumphs of his skills and extraordinary smartness and this is why nobody asks himself (or him) where did those 160 million € go to.
A couple of lines above you said that the mayor did next to nothing in this city and now you claim that he comminted blunders. Which will it be? As for € 160 million: I trust you mean €260 million, the city’s budget. Check the budgetary figures to see how much went where.
As for asking questions: you might actually want to check the fact first before acussing anybody of professional neglect.
Hey, as long as you waste your own money and time, you can take all the pleasure, my friend.
For you, I’ll spare almost no expence… I love seeing you hit your head against a brick wall.
To go back to the original topic about Vodusek and his interview
My, that was some detour! 😀 I understand Vodušek’s servility well enough, thank you very much. If you’d paid a bit closer attention to what I actually write on this blog you’d have noticed that I never said that it was all sunshine as far as media freedom and profesionalism was concerned before Janša came to power. I said that “a new low had been reahed” which means that things weren’t up to standards as it was. But now the standards are even lower. And they will get even lower.
Speaking of Tanja Starič. You wouldn’t have any idea where Metka Lainšček is these days, would you? 😈
You’ve answered the question yourself. In terms of pure politics he needs to do very little to appear that he is doing a lot.
Yes, I agree. So far he is doing an excellent and magnificient job in the department of “nothing”.
And all because of the ineptness of his predecesors.
Ineptness? Is this how these days the professional journalists disguise the word of “incompetence”? Do we have here a new in-depth language? 🙂
How much of the fault for ineptness of his predecessors goes on a belt of professional journalists who failed to inform the citizens of Ljubljana that nothing is being done in the beloved home city and maintain a critical pressure on the city administration?
However, if he manages to fulfil all 22 of his pre-election projects, he will probably get full marks.
Don’t worry, he won’t. He will leave the same site of a fire like he did in every other field of interest which was touched by his devine hands. Let’s take handball for example.
Acutally, he does need consent from various government agencies because almost half of Ljubljana (and virtually all of secessionist architecture) is considered a cultural heritage. Where he doesn’t need consent from the government, he needs the consent of the owners who will have to cover most of the costs. Obviously owners are extremely uncooperative in this respect.
Khm… So why are then his doggy Koželj and Jankovič asking Janša for permission if they need to approach the various government agencies with detailed plans for re-construction? Maybe because they don’t have plans or don’t know how to make them? Perhaps they ought to go to Izola and check some of the latest examples of renovated Venetian architecture. The owners of the houses of the bureacracy also had to knock on various doors of government agencies. But they did that alone without the help of the entire apparatus of the city administration.
Owners are uncooperative?! No wonder. They would get on their backs the lion’s shares of everything (costs, supervision, battling with city administration, battling with government agencies, security on the re-construction site etc.) while Jankovič would take all the final credits. With another firework party, if possible. People of Ljubljana can sometimes be very stupid, but that stupid they are not. 🙂
A couple of lines above you said that the mayor did next to nothing in this city and now you claim that he comminted blunders. Which will it be?
Solving a problem by creating a couple of new problems is not a solution of a problem but a blunder.
As for € 160 million: I trust you mean €260 million, the city’s budget. Check the budgetary figures to see how much went where.
I know this will sound strange in your professional ears but to see the numbers in the city’s budget is not that relevant. Afterall if the government can fiddle the figures, so can the city administration. In some cases, they are probably even more eager to do that. More important is the question how that money was spent and for what. Or to translate this in plain, simple and straightforward language: the results. Let’s take one or two example:
If we look at the budget for 2007 we can see that the City of Ljubljana spent the last year for the property and estate management… khm… around 25,5 million €. Now can you name us five things which have been done in the last year with this money for the benefits of Ljubljana?
By the way: While browsing through the budget rebelans I couldn’t help to notice that the City of Ljubljana planned (received?) only about 320.000 € from various EU funds.
It is also sad that we don’t have similar detailed budget schemes for past years (pre-Jankovic era).
As for asking questions: you might actually want to check the fact first before acussing anybody of professional neglect.
As I said everyone can fiddle the figures. But asking hard and difficult questions can be a tough nut to crack…
For you, I’ll spare almost no expence… I love seeing you hit your head against a brick wall.
Perhaps you could apply at the city administration to grant you a special stipendium. 🙂
My, that was some detour!:D
Actually not. The terms Jankovic and cocksucking go
I understand Vodušek’s servility well enough, thank you very much. If you’d paid a bit closer attention to what I actually write on this blog you’d have noticed that I never said that it was all sunshine as far as media freedom and profesionalism was concerned before Janša came to power.
Really? So you think that such a petition should be undertaken already before 2004? I ask this because I have a strange feeling that I have read somewhere your note where you claimed that the petition – I quote here “it came three years too late“.
Obviously troubles for you did not start before 2004.
I said that “a new low had been reahed” which means that things weren’t up to standards as it was.
What were the standards BEFORE? As I asked and you didn’t reply why don’t you get a transcript of any interviews of Mr. Drnovsek and Rop in times of their premiership and we will both count how many times the “nice professionalists” mentioned casual words from their vocabulary like inflation, clientelism, problems with Ongology Clinic, freedom of speech, Roma problematic, unemployment etc..
Are you willing to put any bets here? :-9
But now the standards are even lower. And they will get even lower.
I don’t see how things can go lower but then again with Kučan and Golobič possibly back in the saddle after the 2008 elections we might get to see a new version of “Slovenski porocevalec”.
Speaking of Tanja Starič.
Yes, transcripts of her interviews with JD and AR, si-vous-plait? How can we see the professionals at work if we don’t have anything to compare them with Vodusek?!? 🙂
You wouldn’t have any idea where Metka Lainšček is these days, would you?
She went last year for two years as a consultant to the OVSE Mission in Vienna. Right? What is wrong with her appointment? Don’t tell me you are jealous? 🙂 Your colleague Franco Juri might disagree with you since his cocksucking skills made him the ambassador in Spain in early 1990s. And he was too just a poor journalist and a cartoonist! But with the badge od LDS in his pocket. Some others wondered in the politics and also obtained high-ranking posts due to their cocksucking skills… Want their names? Simsic, Zupevc, Sirca, Jasa L. Zlobec etc.
How much of the fault for ineptness of his predecessors goes on a belt of professional journalists who failed to inform the citizens of Ljubljana that nothing is being done in the beloved home city and maintain a critical pressure on the city administration?
Again, you’re making things up as you go. Virtually all media were highly critical of Ljubljana administrations – at least during Potočnik and Simšič eras. Media criticism was one of the reasons no mayor was ever elected twice in Ljubljana.
The owners of the houses of the bureacracy also had to knock on various doors of government agencies. But they did that alone without the help of the entire apparatus of the city administration.
So, who should take the initiative now? The city or the owners?
Owners are uncooperative?! No wonder. They would get on their backs the lion’s shares of everything (costs, supervision, battling with city administration, battling with government agencies, security on the re-construction site etc.) while Jankovič would take all the final credits.
And why did owners in Izola finance the renovation out of their own pockets while owners in Ljubljana should be entitled to the city renovating their buildings for free? Please, try to explain that without embarking on yet another spitting tour.
I know this will sound strange in your professional ears but to see the numbers in the city’s budget is not that relevant.(…) If we look at the budget for 2007 we can see that the City of Ljubljana spent the last year for the property and estate management… khm… around 25,5 million €. Now can you name us five things which have been done in the last year with this money for the benefits of Ljubljana?
You say that the numbers are not relevant and yet you quote them as a proof of this amdinistration’s incompetence? You’re growing more and more incoherent… But to indulge you: as far as I understand, most of this money was spent on buying real-estate on which new housing will be built. There were also some issues with that as the city had to go into deficit spending in mid-summer. The Court of Auditors is pouring over that one as we speak.
As I said everyone can fiddle the figures. But asking hard and difficult questions can be a tough nut to crack…
True – but some of us have cracked it on more than one occasion 🙂
Perhaps you could apply at the city administration to grant you a special stipendium
Perhaps… But why? You seem to be quite fond of doing it for free.
So you think that such a petition should be
undertaken already before 2004? I ask this because I have a strange feeling that I have read somewhere your note where you claimed that the petition – I quote here “it came three years too late“.
Obviously troubles for you did not start before 2004.
Yes, yes and no. Such a petition might as well have been put forward pre-2004. I never said that everything was OK before JJ came to power. It’s just that eveything was done oh-so-more-obviously post-2004. Up until Janša/Laško split.
What were the standards BEFORE?
Standards were low to begin with. I never said anything to the contrary.
I don’t see how things can go lower
I can.
Yes, transcripts of her interviews with JD and AR, si-vous-plait?
Go fetch. You seem to be good at it.
She went last year for two years as a consultant to the OVSE Mission in Vienna. Right? What is wrong with her appointment? Don’t tell me you are jealous?
Not in the least. I’d hate bringing up the PM’s child – or so the grapevine has it…