Earlier today, Janez Janša was acquitted of abuse of office in a decades-old real estate deal. The prosecution was asking for a two-year prison sentence. Instead the Glorious Leader and two other people walked out of the courtroom free men.
Seeing as this was all taking place on the catholic feast of Good Friday, over the last few days social media in Muddy Hollows was brimming with hyperbole of Janša getting nailed to the cross. The fervently faithful were even comparing him to Jesus, suffering for our sins and such. But in the end, it was just a good Friday for the one true SDS prophet. Becasuse, to put it in the words of Mary Magdalene, he’s just a man.
The legal aspect of this whole ordeal was fairly straightforward. Janez Janša stood accused of abusing office in 2005, while buying a pricey apartment in Ljubljana partly in cash and partly by having the developer buy a plot of land Janša owned in Trenta valley, through an intermediary. The prosecution argued that the land was fraudulently overvalued and that the real estate developer sucked up the cost because Janša was PM at the time.
Political witch-hunt
SDS leader and much of the commentariat like to point out that it has been nearly two decades since the alleged crime took place. And that by sheer virtue of that fact, the whole thing reeks of a political witch-hunt.
But the whole thing was uncovered only in 2013, during the Winter of Discontent, when Janša (then PM for the second time) found himself under the investigation of the anti-graft commission and couldn’t explain the origins of all of his assets. A judiciary investigation was launched and Janša and his star lawyer then spent much of the next decade refuting admissibility of evidence and expert opinions, as well as opposing venue, judge and jury selection. And so, it wasn’t until last autumn that the trial actually began. If you look at it that way, the trial was in fact relatively short.
In a rules-based democracy political considerations must be secondary to legal ones. If the evidence is compelling then a guilty verdict is in order. If the evidence is not compelling, then the dude is innocent no matter how fucked up his politics may be. And in this case, the evidence apparently wasn’t compelling.
Fear and loathing of Janez Janša
But other than welcome material for lame Easter-themed jokes (“he should have arisen only on Monday!”), the verdict comes as a relief not just to Janša, but to much of the political class as well.
Somehow, the pundits and politicos have come to believe that behind bars Janša would become a martyr, a rallying point not just for the faithful but also for other disenchanted voters. And that, the reasoning goes, would put him in a position to win the elections bigly.
This is, of course, a woefully stupid line of thinking.
First of all, there is no empirical evidence for this. While Janša was in prison over the Patria thing, the SDS was in disarray. Sure, they performed reasonably well in the 2014 election, but it was Miro Cerar and his SMC who won most of the marbles.
But secondly – and much more importantly – this line of thinking only further legitimises Janša’s narrative of corrupt and politically biased judiciary. Prioritising political considerations over legal ones is akin to saying that evidence doesn’t count, that justice isn’t being served and that the only thing that matters is a show of force. In this case, the force of pro-Janša protesters under whose pressure the court in Celje supposedly buckled.
Same old playbook
The Glorious Leader said as much when he addressed the adoring crowds in front of the courthouse, stating that the not guilty verdict was possible only because of them.
You see, in the reality that Janez Janša and his crowd inhabit, whenever the Glorious Leader is found guilty (which does happen every now and then), it is proof positive of corrupt judiciary. And whenever he is innocent, it is despite the corrupt judiciary. This playbook that has been in use ever since the man’s complicated relationship with the judicial branch began decades ago. And today was no different.
Political fallout
That is not to say there will not be a political fallout to the verdict. But it will go in the opposite direction of what some people may have hoped. Namely, Janša has successfully sicced his people on a key democratic institution and en passant tested both the cohesiveness of his base and the agility of the Party propaganda machine. He is probably happy with what he saw.
For their part, the flock were once again confirmed in their faith of the Dear Leader and are emboldened to flex their muscles whenever they are called on next. Because from their point of view, they have successfully protected their one true god.
As a result, there will be even more shit like this happening over the next eleven months (give or take), leading up to the 2026 elections. Things will be fun.
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