Minister of interior Katarina Kresal yesterday – as expected – survived the interpellation (effectively a vote of no confidence) called by Janez Janša’s SDS.
Katarina Kresal making her rebuttal. In the background: PM Pahor, ministers Svetlik and Lukšič (source)
Officially, the vote was called on the basis of Kresal wrongfully implementing the decision of the Constitutional Court concerning the so-called erased (note the “so-called” manoeuvre) saying (among many wonderfully stupid things) that issuing decisions on permanent residence will generate a wave of suits against the state which could amount to as much as a billion euros in damages and that The Quartet is solving an unimportant but potentially costly problem at a time when most people face economic hardship.
There were other rhetorical bravuras, mostly delivered by Janša’s chief attack dog and Goebbels-wannabe Branko “Gizmo” Grims, who took center stage during 14+ hours of parliamentary debate which was more or less a zillionth re-run of the same old story. However, this time the old stance of “erased-were-collaborators-and-deserved-what-they-got” was supplemented by linking their potential claims for compensation to economic crisis, saying the country cannot afford costs of judicial processes by 25.000 people and (what horror!) pay for damages.
Which is yet another example of how SDS pictures the rule of law: selectively.
On the other hand, Kresal enjoyed what was probably her most glorious moment to date. She delivered an extremely strong speech debunking claims of the opposition. But most importantly, she maintained that the issue goes to the very heart of human rights and that there should be no ifs and buts about it, if we are to have a rule of law in Slovenia. All in all she gave a very strong performance and came off as being able to hold her own. Which means that she made leaps of progress since she entered Slovenian politics a little more than a year ago.
As for SDS’s manipulations with the issue at hand, Kresal repeated a sentence by Abraham Lincoln and much later by Bob Marley, both of whom said that you can fool some people sometimes, you can even fool some people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Not that this is the end of it. The opposition said that they will have the parliament form an parliamentary investigative committee which will investigate whether the issue of the erased is being solved properly. Which is just another way of saying that they will keep the issue on the back-burner until next election cycle when you can be sure it will explode once again, but in a much tougher economic environment.
They did it with the Roma in 2004 and won the elections. Question is will they fool enough people in 2012.
You’ve got to love anyone who quotes Lincoln AND Bob Marley!
Of course it helps she’s not unattractive.
As for her politics, I couldn’t comment.
More seriously, can Slovenia really count itself as a true modern European country when it continues to obfuscate about such a divisive period in its history and deny basic human rights to so many of its inhabitants?
As a foreigner, while I appreciate this subject is multi-layered and complicated, I feel that failure to satisfactorily and fairly resolve the issue reflects badly on your wonderful country.
I’ll second Adriaan on the first point, be on the fence on the second point, pass on the third, comment on the fourth with: “isto sranje, drugo pakovanje in any other European country” and wrap up by replying to the fifth with: it now finally *has* been resolved. So no more bad reflections on the prettiest country in the world 😉 Not on account of this particular issue, anyway. Nobody’s purrfect save Chuchi!
@Adriaan: Without pointing any fingers, but just causally wagging them in the general direction of immediate North (and West), Slovenia is not the only country in the world trying to evade its history. Indeed, some countries live in a mass-induced denial.
However, this does not make the whole issue any less shameful. And the issue is far from resolved. What minister Kresal is doing is nothing more than implementing a decision by the Constitutional Court.
In this respect Slovenia indeed isn’t a modern European country. Had it been, the decision would have been implemented immediately and completely, without any points awarded. As it is, the minister became the hero of the day for doing what should be the minimum in political standards.
Yes, we’ve fallen that low
@dr.fil: I disagree. The issue is far from resolved. What was done was just undoing what should never have been done. The fact that if was done after seventeen years, has yet to be addressed – and I don’t mean necessarily in terms of financial compensation.
It should be investigated if the Erasure was an orchestrated effort to purge the residents of this country of “unwanted elements” or “just” a huge clerical error. In other words – was Erasure premeditated.
I for one would be very keen on finding that out.
“In this respect Slovenia indeed isn’t a modern European country. Had it been, the decision would have been implemented immediately and completely, without any points awarded.”
Well, P., that excludes a slew of other countries – EU and otherwise – from being modern, even if they pride themselves in being it. As you accurately point out, such things aren’t just happening in Slovenija alone.
@All: I didn’t mean to imply that my own country stands on the moral high ground. Frankly we left that a LONG time ago and I realise that each country has it’s own social problems to resolve, many of which are the equal of or worse than that of the “Erased”.
Nonetheless I feel that solving this issue will allow Slovenia to close the door on a shameful episode and step into a much brighter place.
And that’s got to be a good thing.
Nonetheless I feel that solving this issue will allow Slovenia to close the door on a shameful episode and step into a much brighter place.
Agreed. The fact that we’re not alone in the hypocrisy club does not get us off the hook.
Oh and one more thing… KK definitely gets bonus points for being attractive. Although I must say that I imagined more… well… tittage.
Dunno… Must be my sick mind…
Nothing sick about “tittage” of course but there’s something very alluring about such a “buttoned up” woman.
There’s a lot to be said for being superficial.
Yes… It does feel nice to take a break from the real world every once in a while 🙂
Don’t worry, it’s almost Friday.
Yeah! 😎
Ali ima sploh kdo od vas pojma za kaj gre?
Ali samo gledate v joške KK? Hihi (za Pengovskega to vsekakor velja bi rekel)
Ta tema ni samo: “Ah, spet hudičevi Janša orehe tre!!! Naj se jebe!”, ampak je resnični preizkus konsenza. Liberalci bi seveda še svoje gate dali za pravičnost (dokler imajo v predalu še 10 rezervnih, hihi), konzervativci pa jih ne bi dali, četudi bi jih imeli 100 v predalu. A ne?
Ma kurac veste! Eni in drugi so enaki. Levi se sprenevedajo, desni so vsaj iskreni, da so šimpanzi prej, kot ljudje. Ne maram preveč levičarje, ker so, vsaj po mojem videnju, povečini nevrotiki, kot pravi humanisti, ki bi pravično delili denar za odškodnine.
Politik ne more biti humanist.
Če KK napenja joške in je gromovita še bolj od Mussolinija in če je Grims alias Gizmo prebrisan, kot Goebbels, ali lahko rečemo, da je KK boljša?
Seveda! Ima vendar joške in puder na frisu. Hihi
Jebite se vsi skupaj, hihi.
LP, Arbi
Ej, Arbi – kontra. Vsaj kar se jebačine tiče, hihi…
Keč je seveda v tem, da pravna država in zaščita šibkejšega v odnosu do države pač ni nekaj, o čemer bi se lahko pogajali. Na žalost gre za branjenje človekovih pravic in temeljnih svoboščin. In če človekove pravice ta hip brani Kresalova, jo je pač treba pohvalit.
Če bi jih branil Grims, bi pač pohvalil njega (in ja, zavedam se, da sem dal Grimsa in človekove pravice v isti stavek).
Ma klinac bi ti pohvalil Gizmota. Ko bo Kresalka delala neumnosti, bo še vedno Kresalka. Gizmo pa bo Gizmo, četudi bi ti domov prinesel kofer poln eurov in te prosil: “Dragi moj P., prosim ne kliči me več Gizmo.Tu imaš 100.000€ in 100.000 razlogov, da me ne kličeš več Gizmo.” In P. bi rekel:”Pa to je šala a ne Grims?” Gizmo:”Ne, ni šala.” P.:”Hvala lepa. Vi oficielno niste več g. Gizmo!” AMPAK! Dragi moji, tudi 100.000 razlogov ne more biti dovolj, da bi iz možganov pregnali Gizmota. Enostavno ne deluje tako veste.
Gizmo bo gizmo. Kresalova pa Kresalova.
Gizmo ne more biti več nič drugega, kot Gizmo. Pa četudi pogrunta kamen modrosti in reši svet revščine.
LP, Arbi
Gizmo ima balonasto glavo, strupen, lažnjiv jezik in zlobne oči. Kresalova pa je blond, lepooka in čuteče bitje. LDS in Goebbels gresta kar lepo skupaj v korak. Gizmo ni nič proti LDS, hihi. LDS RULES! Prekleti tatovi hudičevi tajkunski, hihi.
LP, Arbi
For the record: Branko Grims was nicknamed “Gizmo” in Gorenjska, where he comes from. I didn’t make it up 🙂
Ti si uporabil ta nadimek.
Arbi je tudi lahko samo Arbi, nekateri pa mu rečejo tudi peder.
LP, Arbi