In four days this sorry little excuse for a country will vote on a referendum that is fucking bizarre. Namely, the question at hand is whether outstanding artists should get a state-funded bonus to their pensions after retirement. Things got even bizarre-er when the US embassy in Ljubljana waded in on the issue.
The provision on pensions has been on the books for nearly five decades. Since 19-goddamn-74, to be precise. Golob government, specifically Levica coordinatrix Asta Vrečko, sought to update it and fix some loopholes. But the SDS never met a referendum opportunity it didn’t like and so they went all in.
The vote on Sunday will be either for or against the law SDS is trying to nix. But the law will automatically stand unless at least 340 thousand voters (20% of the total electorate) cast their and the Party’s NO vote wins a majority. vote NO and the NO vote wins a majority.
A legislative nothingburger
Which is why Janša and his ilk are pushing hard for a large turnout and why the government is telling the people to sit this one out.
On substance, the issue at hand is a nothingburger. Exceptional artists, like their counterparts in sports and science are eligible for an add-on to their pension, provided they meet certain criteria. Earlier this year Golob’s government updated the law with clearer criteria and this was enough for SDS to go apeshit.
You know, “degenerate woke intellectual communist leftist who never held a job in their lives and never contributed anything of value to the society want even more of your hard earned and over-taxed euros and this socialist parasitic government is happy to give it to them while you struggle to make ends meet“. The usual type of far-right bullshit demagoguery that makes J.D. Vance sit excitedly on the nearest sofa.
And speaking of J.D., unbeknownst to the Vice-President, he may have cost his ideological brethren in Muddy Hollows a victory at the ballot box they so desperately crave.
Enter the J.D.
To put it simply, since the issue is art-adjacent, the Party made the updated law a culture-war issue and is rallying against it. But not to defeat the law per se (although that would be a nice bonus) but to field-test for the troops for upcoming election season. And to rattle the cage of Golob’s government a bit.
Which is where the US Embassy in Ljubljana comes in with J.D.’s quote. SDS and the Glorious Leader picked the tweet up and fucking ran with it, interpreting it as an implicit support of the Trump administration. Which, in light of the coalition favouring the boycott, may not be entirely off the mark.
But if two days ago things seemed a bit touch-and-go for the government, American embassy publicly poking when they should only have been peeking suddenly shifted the narrative. And not in a good way for Team Janša, no matter how ecstatic they may feel tonight.
Diplomatic nuance of a rhinocerous
Because if there is one thing an average Slovenian voter hates even more than art they don’t understand, it is being told what to do by a superpower. Doubly so if the said average voter is of a liberal-left persuasion. Triply so if the said superpower is run by an orange Jabba the Hut, dishing out tariffs like candy.
When this whole thing began, not everyone on the left was sold on Levica and GS idea of sitting out the vote. Moreover, in the three years of Apex Aviary Administration, enough resentment has built up for the people on the left and right wanting to blow off some steam.
Add to that the average Slovenian voter may actually feel some sort of lumpenproletariat-esque disdain for the art in general (and modern art specifically), and suddenly there exists a reality where more than 340k votes are cast and the NO vote wins a majority.
But with US Embassy in Ljubljana sporting the diplomatic subtlety of a rhinocerous, the entire left-liberal part of the spectrum started clutching pearls and reaching for smelling salts, because apparently the Americans are iNtErfEiRiNg wItH iNtErNaL aFfAiRs of MuDdY HoLlOwS! AgAiN!!11!
Virtue signalling
To wit, even SD is saying as much and they weren’t too hot on the referendum boycott in the first place.
Now, it the tweet impolitic? Duh. especially given the context of the quote (J.D. rooting for the European far-right) and the context of the tweet itself (coalition calling for a boycott). But does it all amount to interfering? Probably not.
However, this entire referendum thing is about virtue signalling. The right is railing against degenerate artists. The liberal left is railing against fascists. So it doesn’t really matter if this sorry-ass and ill-thought out tweet constitutes interference in Slovenian domestic affairs. What matters is how the people on the fence will see it. And many will likely see it as outside meddling.
Saying thank you
Despite all of this, it has to be said that in a way J.D. is right. Sure, in a way a broken clock is right twice a day, but still.
GS and Levica spent the last couple of weeks telling people to not bother with the referendum this Sunday, But fast forward ten months and they will be begging, pleading and prodding those same people to please cast their fucking votes unless they want another Janša government. Talk about mixed messaging.
But thanks to that J.D. quote and that tweet by US embassy in Ljubljana, the coalition’s tactical dilemma may have become moot. What is more, the embassy may have just cost Janša a victory at the ballot box.
Have Levica and GS even said thank you once? They should.
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