Pengovsky is still clearing his backlog, so a serious new post will have to wait a day or two more. However, you should know that shit in Slovenia hit the fan with the prime minister being accused of taking a huge bribe in and arms deal (suprise, surprise) with Finland-based Patria Vehicles. To cut a long story short, Slovenia is buying a number Finnish APCs and not everbody is happy. Defence minister Karel Erjavec has so far shown many teflon-like qualities, deflecting shit thrown at him by playing dumb, ignorant or sarcastic (or any combination of the three).
The story of Slovene PM Janša being bribed, however, was broken by a programme on Finnish state television. Janša and indeed most of the top levels of government went apeshit, forgot that Finland is not Slovenia and demanded that Finnish state TV run another programe, detailing the Slovene government’s version of events. The Finns obviously told my government to go fuck itself (perhaps not in such a colourful langugage, but hey – I don’t speak Finnish :)) and stood by its programe.
So instead Janša went to the competition in Finland. Tonight, Nelonen TV runs an interview with Janez Janša. It is all very sombre, right until the very end where something strange happens.
Video recoded by Vest.si. Original on Nelonen TV.
And then one starts to wonder what kind of an interview this was. Aha! A clue, Sherlock!.
But this is just to keep you amused while I get back on track. In the mean time someone get the man his breathing mask and a light sabre… 
“We’re sorry, this video is no longer available.”
It still can be seen at Vest.si though
I believe they were hanging outside in the hallway.
No one in Slovenija speaks or understands Finnish? Guess again, Janez. Anyhoo… I’ll get back to you in about an hour with the Finnish translation of ‘Go fuck yourself’. 😆
The long arm of the all-owning all-reaching JJ sued the USA government who owns Youtube with the tight laws of the parliament that … when defamation … er well, this government whose language they don’t understand (who’s talking) and they might sue … or not. And elections are coming and after making people swallow the railroad tycoon thing JJ doesn’t have time for this bullshit. Now he’s in talks with Yahoo to put a nicer-looking video.
Thanks JJ for making me discover levels of pathos (“pathetism” doesn’t exist :P) far beyond my own 🙂
Dr. ARF: maybe something like “haista vittu” 🙂
@Aja: It’s working again. Must have been just temporary.
@Arf & Disablez: ROTFL!
With thanks to my nice Finnish colleague Anne, who is always glad to help in such serious linguistic questions : “Vetäkää käteenne” (slang). Eat that, JJ; although I wonder whether it tastes better than salmiakki.
@P : My pleasure 😉
Truman show, anyone?
mmm. salmiaki… home-sick… cant wait to hear your more serious take on this one. though you don’t really have to be einstein to figure it out. I love the idea of a great Socialdemocratic conspiracy.. Because Slovenia is _that_ important to us united scandinavian tax-vampires! muhaha!
I feel S
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ick
I feel for Slovenia
I demand that the whole Maria’s show, where the interview with JJ was published, is broadcasted on RTVSLO before election day.
Everybody must see in what disaster JJ will lead us following his need for truth.
I feel I rather be from Slovakia these days.
Common, everybody. While it is quite nice to read so many clever things in Slovenian media (including blogs) all of a sudden, I would, I do apologise for this verb, advise you not to take things too seriously, not more than they deserve.
Slovenia is not the country with the most stupid morons and totally uncapable politicos. There is no such thing in the EU… And weapon trade has always been bad and full of illegal or semi-legal things, don’t you agree.
Did you know that the former MP of Bayern, Herr Stoiber, has a lovely nickname for his wife? He once admitted, during an election when he was a Kanzler-candidate, he called her Muschi.
Need I explain what this expression denotes to younger generations? (A part of the female body often seen on this blog on Fridays)
And, and, and. If I concentrate only on German newspapers and news from politics presented there, I cannot say Slovenian affairs are worse or much more terrible. But we need to protest and discuss them, that’s true. No?
Having seen the show it would indeed seem prudent not to take things too seriously.
However, there are three things that stand out. One is the accusation of PM Janša taking a bribe of 20 mil euros.
Even more worrying is the obvious attempt by JJ to influence Finnish media by having Finnish media pressuring the public TV broadcaster
And thidly, Republic of Slovenia is apparently going to sue the Finnish public broadcaster because its programme named the PM as being bribed. This is blatant misuse of powers and public funds, because last time I checked, Janez Janša was not the Republic of Slovenia. He is free to sue himself, of course, but he cannot – should not – act as if he is Slovenia.
@Davor: Unless you liked soccer 🙂
@alcessa: How DARE you claim that our affairs aren’t all that bad? We may not be the biggest, we may not be the best, but we ARE the nation with the criminal offence of Grand Filth! And for good reason… 😈
Well, first of all:
we don’t know anything about the 20 mil. EUR. Apart from the fact that they were sent to Austria, right? And if someone in Slovenia wanted them and this can be proved – what’s the problem? We have the culprits, Thanks God, let’s send them to Goli- erm. to prison.
An independent broadcaster may use the fact for its own publicity, but Jansa’s threat shouldn’t pose a problem, let alone influence them! They ARE already independent and this is their opportunity to prove it. And while they are at it: They could also present some proofs that it was Jansa who was supposed to be bribed, why not. (I don’t like Jansa, to make that clear)
Yeah, it’s the third problem that I find worrying, too. Why should Slovenian taxpayers pay for this, I wonder. Maybe you should, you know, demonstrate against it.
Dr. filomena: Actually, we schould be only accused of TERMINAL STUPIDITY. Most European nations have been quite ready to consider us a nice, picturesque country, full of hardworking, nice people, ever since 1991. And we have been trying damn hard to prove we are nothing of the kind, ever since. Luckily, Slovenia’s not interesting enough, for foreign media, to write about every goddamn bad thing we do, but slowly, we are going to convince everyone we actually are the Bad Balkanese, not the Ever-boring Europeans. And then we’ll start to believe it, too. And fill foregin newspapers with stories about Viennese Coachmen. DAMN. 😈
Point on item one. Hoever, the reporter went on the record later that his story was confirmed by more than two sources, none of which are Slovenian.
What I am saying is that accusation of such a bribe is serious business by itself, hence we should look at the thing very carefuly. And Janša’s rebuttals were along the lines of “there is no evidence and even if it exists it is surely faked”, which is not exactly a text-book definition of a strong denial
But item two is typical of this government. If this were a normal country with a normal PM, then the very thought of calling Finnish PM and asking him to apply pressure to Finland public broadcaster should not even beginc contemplating of crossing Janša’s mind. As we know, this was not the case. Even more, Janša employed diplomatic channels to do so.
@alcessa: Acting in the manner of Louis XIV is unacceptable and should have been seen as such by all Slovenian citizens. While I would not go as far as claiming his head, I do think the guy needs to get a grip. If he is innocent of the allegations and feels deeply hurt by them, he should act on it, of course, but as a private individual, not as the state he is currently steering as a result of democratic elections.
I couldn’t care less whether Slovenes are considered nice and hard-working by other nations in Europe and neither should our top politicians invest too much of their energy in our country and its people coming across as likeable. Mostly harmless, actually. They should, instead, focus on making sure that our economy is sound, that people live well and that our relations with neighbouring countries are settled. I wouldn’t mind them spending less (or zero) money on the army and using more of it on R&D, education and issues of sustainability.
Dr. Filomena: I’d have much to say on this topic, but, alas, I have to work. Two things I’d like to state, though: it is important what other nations think about us because this influences the cooperation on the European level – we are involved in many projects, organisations etc. etc. and the more they think well of us, the more we can learn, achieve and change.
Since you didn’t vote against Nato (you=people of Slovenia – it is the result that matters) you should now take care to show at least the minimum of involvement. And armoured vehicles are necessary in peace-keeping missions, because without them you are mostly not allowed to leave the camp. So you must stay there and clean the toilets and do petty jobs, while your armoured colleagues can help the people outside. And since we do have an army, and since there are no nations we could beat in a war, we can at least do some useful things in other places. Or do away with the army and get out of Nato. But do something, that we must.
@alcessa: Agreed on both counts. And I think you have a good idea of how I voted when it came to joining NATO.