Prime Minister Janez Janša of Slovene democratic party (SDS) and leader of the opposition Social democrats Borut Pahor go head to head today in a debate televised on TV Slovenia. It should be interesting to see first hand how the PM and his challenger differ in substance and style.
Janša vs. Pahor – may the best man have already won (source)
Did I say first hand? Ooops! That’s me being naive… Namely, the debate will not actually be televised, but was rather pre-recorded on Tuesday night and will be aired today in prime-time slot. Hopefully, the host of the show Tarča (Target) during which the debate will take place will keep the content intact. Although I’m troubled by the fact that a pre-election debate will not be aired live. Pre-election debate? Not really. By law RTVSLO must give equal time to any and all political parties which run for parliament. But as the campaign starts on Thursday, a fist-fight between Janša and Pahor was scheduled for Wednesday (today) to circumvent those nasty election laws.
So after Thursday studios on state television will become very crowded indeed. Yesterday Pahor and Janša already fought one out. Today we’ll see how it went. I wonder though, how other party leaders feel about this duel…
Poor form not to hold true live, uncensored debates on at highest level important issues on national TV.
As a point of interest, the same show with the same host aired a debate on 30 August 2004 between Anton Rop who at the time was Slovenia’s Prime Minister and Janez Janša who at that time was the challenger, the leader of the opposition.
The national TV announced the show as follows:
We are preparing a confrontation unlike any other in history. A confrontation of two concepts, two options and of the two strongest politicians. How much work was done during the previous term and what promises are being given for the next term?
With 242,000 viewers, it turned out to be the most popular show aired in Slovenia in 2004. I can imagine we’ll come close to a repeat performance tonight (take a few on account of all those still enjoying their vacations).
Projection:
Person A: aloof, full of self-confidence, fends off any criticism by painting it a personal attack by dark forces, remnants of the old regime
Person B: gives the impression of being determined, full of energy and fresh out of a hair salon, will not attack too hard since he knows that throwing dirt results in some of it sticking to your hands
drama, but not much violence. no need for a PG classification. popcorn and coke, here we come
Hehe. I found this exercise a lot of fun:
http://www.finance.si/forumi/?m=297794#297794
Sorry, slovene only.
PS on the above: please note a reclassification from drama to tragedy through unfortunately not resulting in any sort of effective purgation.
@crni: well done! have you seen the hawk & the dove comic series? though I admit that may I prefer JJ’s constipation to the entire country’s diarrhoea that would likely follow the implementation of MM’s plans.