What do Janez Janša and PFAS have in common? Apparently, both are forever. That, at least, is one of the takeaways of the SDS congress that took place this past weekend. The other takeaway being that the Party and its Glorious Leader will (again) go for broke.
Janša won his tenth consecutive term as SDS leader by a lopsided 98.4 % of the vote. This makes him the longest-serving living party leader in Europe, bar none. And even among the dearly departed party chiefs, the only one to have served longer than Marshal Twito is, well, OG Marshal Tito.
After anointing the Glorious Leader as their prophet once more, the faithful also approved the new Party platform. Not that they really had any other choice. Nevertheless, it seems the attendees really were enthusiastic about approving a document titled Taking Our Country Back.
It calls for prying the country from the claws of migrants and transsexuals, poisoning the minds of our children. The SDS will, goes their pitch to voters, defend them from the deranged left, hell-bent destroying the EU and Muddy Hollows. This in a time when the old world is dying and the new world is struggling to appear.
Did you catch that? Not only is the entire thing equal parts MAGA madness and Brexit baloney, it also incorporates Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci with his famous quote. Sort of, anyway.
Which just goes to show that for all its far-right populism, the Party and its forever Glorious Leader have never really forsaken their Marxist-Leninist origins. At least in terms of political craft, where they are not above fudging well-known bits of history to suit their current political needs.
Far-right(eous) indignation
What Gramsci really said was that while old world is dying and the new one is struggling to appear, it is the time of monsters. And SDS, the right-wing faction of Slovenian Communists, is apparently done being nice.
Frankly, nice is not exactly the adjective that comes to mind regarding the SDS, but whatever. They no longer give a fuck about what other people think. Their aim is nothing short of remaking the country in their own image, starting with the constitution.
Which, of course, is the same basic goal they always had. And they never really cared about what other people thought about them. So, for all the far-right(eous) indignation, the Party congress was not unlike Q&A session at a PTA meeting: Same as last time around, someone else did all the talking and you really just want to be done with it already.
Politics may be downstream of culture but being boring as fuck is culturally unacceptable under every circumstance. And for years, nay, decades, Janša is boringly predictable in announcing that revolution is just around the corner. If only the people voted correctly. And yet, somehow he never quite gets there.
Two-thirds majority
Securing a stable two-thirds majority Janez Janša needs to rewrite the constitution is his own image is unlikely at best. And deep down, the forever president knows that. Because while he was doing his best Donald-Trump-meets-Viktor-Orban shtick, Janša was busy preparing the rank-and-file for four more years of life in opposition.
He said that while he wants to make Muddy Hollows great again, he is done putting up with lesser parties and their lust for power. Either his future coalition partners will share the revolutionary zeal or the Glorious Leader will wait it out a bit longer. In other words, if the revolution doesn’t catch on, it will be the fault of back-stabbing future partners and SDS rubes lacking in the revolutionary cause.
Surpassing Tito
This probably means that SDS will have to confirm Janez Janša as their forever president at least until 2033. By which time he will have finally surpassed Comrade Tito as the longest-serving party leader in modern history.
At least he will have achieved that.
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