The Parliament yesterday started what promises to be the most hardcore session in recent history. The new Family Code legalising same-sex marriages and adoptions, a law on reinstitution of rights to The Erased and – last but certainly not least – start of impeachment proceedings against President Danilo Türk have the potential to develop into a political perfect storm.
How Türk’s impeachment would have looked if Janša had his way (source, edit by pengovsky)
As things stand now the political left is not in the best of shapes. The government of Borut Pahor as a whole is about as popular as a Klingon opera while the opposition is having a field day with individual ministers and/or party leaders. Parliamentary investigation of Gregor Golobič is slowly but surely transforming into a full-blown Spanish Inquisition, where the initial charges were proven wrong, but that doesn’t matter, because he surely is quilty, they just have to find out what of. Or so their reasoning seems to go.
Minister of health Borut Miklavčič is facing calls to resign because he apparently signed a bad contract with GlaxoSmithKline for delivery of swine-flu vaccine. Imagine what would happen if he didn’t sing the contract in the first place. He’d probably be taken off stage legs-first. As things stand that may indeed happen. Days ago Miklavčič was hospitalised for the third time in less than a year. Last summer he suffered a mild stroke and was advised to lighten his workload. Being in a middle of health reform Miklavčič, a known workaholic, agreed to work only twelve hours a day and on Monday the devil came to collect. It may well be that PM Pahor will gave to look for a new health minister toot-suite
Then there are the inevitable interpelations of agriculture minister Milan Pogačnik and interior minister Katarina Kresal, both of which are embroiled in the canine scandal. In all honesty, Kresal is in such deep shit only by virtue of her partner Miro Senica being the attorney to the late Sašo Baričević who is suspected of animal abuse, but there you go. It’s not what you do, it’s who you know.
And as of today it is quite probable that minister of labour, family and social affairs will become the next target. According to “traditionalist” groups the new Family Code will surely bring about the apocalypse as it violates the “natural order” where some people can have a family, whereas others are not allowed to. The debate predictably runs along ideological lines, which pengovsky detailed here some time ago. Even more. If the code is passed, those opposing it will call for a referendum. Which will probably (athough this is not certain) be struck down by the Constitutional Court. Which will probably then lead to calls for constitutional judges to be replaced as well.
The political right goes on to say that ust as same-sex couples should not be granted rights their heterosexual counterparts already have (as this would have lead to the destruction of the nation) so too should the Erased be prevented from reinstitution of their “legal alien” status, backdated to 1992, as this is unpatriotic, costly and will surely lead to the destruction of the nation. Even more, in both cases human rights of these two particular groups of citizens are, well, expendable in the wider interests of the society (“wider”, “interest” and “society” being defined by the political right itself :)).
However.
Those same human rights suddenly become paramount in case of impeachment of President Danilo Türk, who – as readers of this blog know – somewhat foolhardily gave a medal to the last socialist interior secretary Tomaž Ertl. Türk allegedly violated as much as thirty-four articles of the constitution, especially rights of those who were harassed by UDBa. This too is tantamount to high treason and utterly unpatriotic, or so the opposition says. This too, was covered here in detail and pengovsky won’t go into it again. But point is that on one hand human rights are paramount, whereas on the other their continuous violation is only encouraged, but demanded.
Which brings us to the final point of today’s longish post. Human rights, morals, patriotism and even “natural order” are but consumables, poker chips which are thrown on the table when upping the ante, in a game where ever more galactic bets are being made, where the ultimate prize is not money, but political power. To attain it, anything and everything is allowed. Judgements are being passed in advance, regardless of the facts. If the latter don’t fit the theory, so much worse for the facts. And when these judgements will not be upheld by the appropriate institutions, then – it can be expected – calls will be made to replace those institutions as well.
Even though I made mention of this in the post about the late Janez Drnovšek, it never ceases to amaze me and induces a prolonged shaking of the head in negatory fashion at the continuous and contentious fact that the political right claims to have exclusivity on morals and so- called values and demonstrates this by excluding all those who don’t fit their heavily subjective point of view on who and what is morally just. Be it Slovenija, Belgium, the U.K., the U.S., if the right wing politicians would have their way, all those not fitting their moral profile should be stripped of their legal rights and if worse would come to worst, taken out the back and get uncemermoniously shot in the head, going by their rhetoric. A frequent bout of amnesia regarding their own transgressions on their self styled moral code of course helps…
It’s not that. It’s simply that They. Just. Know.
Of course they do. Who needs facts when you just know you’re right?
I think that Mr. Janša just does not know when to stop. He gained from this Ertl matter at the beginning but now he is overdoing it….
@rx170: True dat.
Meanwhile, in another part of the kitchen… SNS slowly, but surely ascends. Hate speech sells well these days.