Month: May 2009

When Borut Pahor took over as PM, pengovsky (a self-important asshole that he is) wrote a public appeal to Pahor, which included the following:

[Y]ou were always big on words. Admittedly, you recognised that at the time you yourself lack specific economic knowledge to tackle the crisis, but will rely on your all-star team instead. However, you should bear in mind that you were not elected to snow us with big words, but because you flat out promised to do a much better job than Janez Janša. Even more – you echoed people’s worries about the economy, while Janša refused to admit that there is a crisis approaching, and this too got you elected. What I am trying to say is, that you will have to deliver regardless of the crisis. You will not be able to feign ignorance four years from now and say “I didn’t know it was going to be that bad”. You knew, we all knew. Except Janša. But that’s why you’ll be the one answering during Q&A sessions of the Parliament.

PM Pahor during Monday’s Q&A session (source)

Monday last, after six months at the helm of his government, Borut Pahor took part in one of those Q&A sessions, where – among others – he talked about how the government is tackling the crisis (transcript, Slovenian only):

We find ourselves in a difficult position, but Slovenia is relatively successful in tackling the crisis. Success will be complete when the crisis is finally overcome and today I say to you that we shall overcome. We shall.

Successful?

In the last six months at least 25,000 people lost their jobs. Companies are going bankrupt. The credit crisis hasn’t abated. GDP dropped as much as 4 percent in the first quarter and some projections say that it will dive even lower. State and municipal budgets are hardly worth the paper they’re printed on. Quality of life has fallen again, as people are cutting back even on the quality of bread they buy, to save money.

Without trying to sound too cynical – if this is success, one wonders what does failure look like?

At the same time, this government is wasting time by non-transparently appointing CEOs of state-owned companies, obviously as a result of political deals, and then – when shit hits the fan – removing them the very same way, and is bleeding much-needed credibility in the process. This is not just the case of Nova Ljubljanska Banka. The same thing occured when appointing a new CEO of Slovene Railways, ditto for appointing CEO of Hit Casions and will probably happen when naming a new CEO of Petrol – to name but a few examples.

Don’t get me wrong. Obivously no government – let alone this one – can work miracles. Things have been done. Or – at the very least – will be done, apparently rather soon. Today, the government will approve additional guarantees for DARS to continue constructing the highway system. The very same thing which added to overheating Slovene economy four years ago might now prevent it from dropping dead completely. Ministers for Development and Finance, Mitja Gaspari and Franci Križanič promised to introduce a scheme to back up banks lending to businesses by the end of the month.

But trying to placate the people by Churchillesque phrases will not work. The old fart knew exactly what to say and when to say it. For example, when British expeditionary forces (the bulk of British armed forces) were successfully evacuated at Dunkirk, people were thrilled, but instead of lulling them into a false sense of success, Winston told them that rather than a victory, Dunkirk was an epic defeat and that wars are not won by evacuations. So instead of idolising Churchill, Slovene PM would do well to imitate him and present the true state of Slovenian economy, its strong sides as well as its weak points. So that facts will be known and the government’s acts judged against them.

This government will not get us out of the crisis. Not by itself it will not. It must win cooperation, respect and trust both by businesses as well as employees. This is done by laying out bare facts as well as guaranteeing that suffering of those who will get the long end of the stick (businesses and employees alike) will not have been in vain. People must know that it will be worth it. Only than shall we – perhaps – overcome.

After only four months Draško Veselinovič in no longer CEO of Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB). In a surprise move the bank’s Supervisory Board accepted resignation Veselinovič submitted a month ago. The move is surprising because it was a) obvious from the start that Veselinovič offered to resign (but stopped short of actually resigning) only to placate those who screamed for blood when it transpired that NLB extended a loan taken out by Infond Holding (one of many companies in a web that controls Laško Brewery) to help out in Boško Šrot’s takeover of Laško. Even more surprising is the fact that Supervisory board accepted the resignation a month after it was submitted. The debate was initially scheduled only days after Veselinovič made his move, but then the session was cancelled, seemingly to protect Veselinovič and defuse the situation which reached boiling point when Minister of Economy Matej Lahovnik threatened to resign.

Draško Veselinovič during happier times at the helm of NLB (photo by Matej Družnik/Delo, source)

At this juncture is not exactly clear what happened. Draško Veselinovič is a prominent figure of Katarina Kresal’s LDS, who was about to become MP after KK was appointed Minister of Interior. Draško took a pass, however, and enabled Tone Anderlič, an old LDS hand to become MP. In return Veselinovič was named CEO of NLB, a position he was overtly interested in. And since LDS and Katarina Kresal didn’t make a lot of trouble during the coalition negotiations, things just fell into place. With the small exception of Veselinovič being named without a tender, although NLB is still controlled by the state and that the Quartet promised greater transparency in selecting leading cadre in state-owned companies.

It took PM Pahor a lot of energy to calm down the shitstorm that erupted after Veselinovič was appointed, and it is entirely possible that he just couldn’t hold Gregor Golobič and Matej Lahovnik of Zares back anymore and had to give in. Unconfirmed rumours have it that president of the Supervisory board met with Finance Minsiter Franci Križanič only minutes before the session started and this line of thought goes that Križanič relayed a message saying that Veselinovič ran out of political cover.

Whether or not the above is true is actually only of tangential relevance. What is more important is the effect Veselinovič’s removal will have on the relations within the coalition. LDS president Katarina Kresal publicly stated that the decision was for the Supervisory Board to take and that it must be respected. However, is obvious that her party was just denied an extremely strong powerbase and that must not go down lightly either with her or LDS leadership in general (on that note: it will be interesting to see if her authority within the party will get challenged as a result).

On the other hand, this is a very big victory for Zares’ Gregor Golobič and Matej Lahovnik, who were extremely disconcerted by the fact that their former brethren in LDS were re-establishing themselves so quickly, as well as by the manner in which this was achieved. Truth be told, there is more than meets the eye to their continuous calls for tenders to be held instead of taking cloak-and-dagger decisions, but this will have to wait for another day.

And finally, it seems that PM Pahor had to give in to Golobič if he wanted to avoid appearing as if he condones the so-called “tycoon loans”.

However, Newton’s third law applies in politics as well. Every action is met with equal but opposite reaction. And it will be interesting how LDS will hit back. Because hit back it will

Since this country is facing the latest instalment of a joke called European elections, it is only fitting to take a look at a political process which makes little sense. First, we must ask ourselves, what did Slovenian MEPs of the first term do for us? Rather than of course running up high costs – covered by the taxpayers – incurred by some twat who was explaining to his equally useless eurobuddies about Slovene potica and the suffering of Slovene mothers. Second. What are we to think about an institution as silly as the European Parliament? It has none of the functions a parliament traditionally has. It is hosting a third-rate debate club, which is deliberating questions as important as the primary source of a Basque bat. And third: Why must we vote for these local clowns? Isn’t this a European election? Why can’t we vote for a German party if we feel that it would better represent our interests? Again, we are limited to the trivial choice of Pahor/Janša-type, albeit with a European flavour. It would be best if Slovenia gave up this expensive an useless circus and lets Brussels know that until European Parliament becomes a proper parliament, Slovenia will not take part in this Eurosong contest.

Economist Rado Pezdir on Vest.si (source via DrugiDom)

The fact that Rado Pezdir is one of the self-styled shock-jocks of Slovenian economics should be more than enough to preclude any substantial comment to a text which clearly falls under the AW category. And if his macroeconomic antics, which echoed those of Mičo Mrkaič, Jože P. Damijan and other members of the Slovene Macroeconomic Forum (or Sexy Motherfuckers as they wanted to be known at first), were still somehow understandable (you cannot expect a Thatcherite to make an about-turn just because the reality had changed), his swipe at upcoming European elections is completely unforgivable.

Granted, European elections and -by extension- the European Parliament (EP) are not all that they could be. I will not go into the history of evolution of EP, but suffice it to say that it did indeed start as a debate club for elderly gentleman who were way past their due date. But it has grown considerably, both in terms of representation as well as in the scope of its powers. Budgetary powers of a parliament are among the most important powers in this day and age. And in this respect EP is not lacking. Furthermore, the parliament approves and can recall the European Commission (the “executive branch” insofar as we can talk of division of power on the EU level), which is another important factor in the game of checks and balances. Even if we can put Pezdir’s lack knowledge on political intricacies down to his economic background (for which he is dully forgiven), his lacking in the basics outlined above is below the acceptable minimum.

With this in mind it seems pointless to go delving deeper into shallowness of Pezdir’s text. But hey . you only live twice, or so the song goes. Maybe in his next lifetime, provided that he does not reincarnate as a member of Tephritidae persuasion, Rado Pezdir will learn that indeed one can vote for a German (or Latvian, or British) candidate or even a party, provided that such a party would find it reasonable to run its candidates in Slovenia and conform to Slovenian legislation on political parties. The fact that no non-Slovene parties or candidates do such a thing proves only that the Slovenian political market is saturated with little room for expansion. As an economist, Pezdir should be able to understand that, but he doesn’t. Which could tell us something about his overall abilities of perception as well.

And finally, if Rado Pezdir really believes that MEPs debate on geographical origins of food and animals, his arrogance and ignorance are truly infinite. It takes only a quick glance to see that during its last session (May 4 to 7) the EP – among other items on the agenda debated credit requirements directives, electronic communications networks, personal data and the protection of privacy and frequency bands for mobile communications.

To cut a long story short: As it is, Rado Pezdir has once again shown that he favours style over substance. This time, however, he is way out of his depth and has ashamed himself as well as Vest.si which ran his piece. But truth be told, this is only the last and most blatant example of the fact that Rado Pezdir has nothing important left to say. And in that respect one feels that Tom Lehrer, a matematician/musician pengovsky only recently discovered, was right when he said that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up.

Opposition SDS had a post-election convention Saturday last where the former PM was (not unexpectedly) re-elected as party chairman. What was somewhat surprising was the force with which he went after the current government, although it must be said that Janez Janša seems much more comfortable in the role of opposition leader. But it could be that pengovsky is just used to seeing him in that particular role.

Janša probably didn’t get the message. A marvellous photo by Luka Cjuha/Dnevnik (source)

In his acceptance speech (Slovene only) Janša denounced the way this government was tackling the crisis and called for “The Second Republic” by proposin a set of radical constitutional reforms which are suppose to streamline development and turn the economic tide. Janša called for

-reform of the judiciary (abolition of indefinite tenure of a judge)
-making a referendum decision revocable only by another referendum
-streamlining the formation and increasing efficiency of the government (executive branch)
-allowing early elections
-implementing regions under penalty of dissolution of parliament
-reforming the National Council into Council of regions
-introducing compulsory high school
-prohibiting glorification of all totalitarian regimes
-amending Article 39 of the Constitution (freedom of speech) by prohibiting media monopolies
-introducing environment protection as a constitutional category

You will notice that not a single proposal deals with the crisis. Not one. Rather than an honest attempt at helping out this is rather yet another short-cut to power Janša is trying to take. In this case the short-cut means nothing less than disturbing the entire system of checks and balances, which is something Janša has always had a problem with. Even while he was in power he considered the judiciary branch as a “bastion of commie filth”. Indeed there are problems with Slovenian courts, manifested mostly in the form of horrible delays (it will usually take you from three to five years to get a final verdict on anything). But this has precious little to do with the economic crisis. Janša’s problem with Slovenian judiciary is not its inefficiency, but rather its independence and the latter is very much founded in the permanent tenure of the judges. Granted, the permanent tenure has its drawback, but if judges were up for re-election every (say) five-or-so years, you can bet your ass they would be much more inclined to decide in favour of those who decide on whether they keep their job. Because if a judge would play ball, the coalution could simply have its MPs not extend the term of this particular judge.

This goes hand in hand with streamlining the formation of the government and increasing its efficiency. This is of course just a euphemism for increasing competences of the government, naturally at the expense of the parliament. While the formation of the government in Slovenia really is a complicated three-step procedure, it should not be abandoned just because Janša said so. As things stand now, a government – once formed – can almost always count on its majority in the parliament to rubber-stamp its decisions. It is the fragility or sturdiness of the coalition (rather than the government formation process) which decides on how much power the parliament and the MPs will have. Furthermore – Janša proposed that the parliament could only recall an entire government and not individual ministers (as it can do now) and even that the PM could choose his ministers without the parliament vetting them. This is a great tool to play your coalition partners one against another and would actually breed even more governmental inefficiency as no coalition will bring its own government down just to change a minister, whereas there would be no parliamentary control of who gets to be a minister.

And finally, there’s the call to enable early elections, which thoroughly weakens the parliament and infinitely strengthens the government. Because if elections would be called every time a political impasse would be reached, Slovenia would suddenly be ruled by a string of caretaker governments without any parliamentary control whatsoever. Moreover, as historians of the Weimar Republic will tell you, constant elections will ultimately weaken the parliament and the whole democratic process, paving the way for a more autocratic leader.

And to hasten the process, Janša proposes the parliament has another go at the legislation on regions (the very issue where Janša failed spectacularly) or face dissolution. As there is no way in hell regional legislation in its present form would pass, the whole process of early elections and caretaker governments would be jump-started, preferably with Janša already in power.

Then we have Janša peddling with Article 39 of the constitution. The sheer stupidity of having the article include anti-media-monopoly provision is beyond description. A monopoly is a monopoly, be it in media or otherwise. A monopoly is by definition related to ownership and market share rather and there are institutions to fight that already in place, (in)effective as they may be. There is absolutely no reason to start fooling around with the Constitution because of that, much less with the article which guarantees freedom of speech. Because one you open that article up for debate, you can be sure that someone (maybe even JJ himself) will have a really bright idea about curbing this freedom “just a little” so it would suit their political needs.

Which brings us to our final point – Janša’s idea to have the Constitution ban glorification of all totalitarian regimes and their symbols. Which a) immediately puts anyone who doesn’t think Tito a complete and utter criminal on the wrong side of the law b) criminalises any and all Partisan paraphernalia from WWII and c) equals resistance and collaboration during WWII, making both of them “equally bad”, which is nothing less than a complete revision of history.

Which makes Janša’s second republic sound a whole lot like a proto-fascist regime. Only that this time around he’d have the Constitution to cover his ass. However, in every cloud there’s a silver lining. And in this case it is the fact that Janez Janša and his SDS finally recognised the fact that there is an economic crisis.

You will no doubt remember how as late as Summer 2008 Janša cited incredible economic results his government supposedly had and denounced everyone who warned against the crisis as being scare-mongers trying to rain on his parade. He also acknowledges the fact that this county is seriously indebted which makes the crisis all the more worse. But he fails to note that it was his expansionary economic policies which prompted an increase in loan-taking and thus overheating the economy. But hey, you can’t expect him to understand everything in one go. Because he also seems to understand that there is a lot of media concentration in Slovenia, but he fails to add that he helped create one of the largest media barons and failed to bust all other media concentrations which were formed under previous governments.

Janša said that Slovenia can be government better. It sure can. It’s just that he’s is not it. Not after only six months since he was ousted as PM. True, pengovsky may be more accustomed to Janez Janša as leader of the opposition, but the man himself seems to be suffering from a serious case of withdrawal symptoms.