Welcome to part three of the fourth Janša government primer. Click here for parts one and two. Both readers can be reassured that pengovsky knows he needs to hurry the fuck up. Things just keep piling up, including but not limited to Bibi Netanyahu starting to collect on his black-cubed debt.
But before we get there, we’ve still got at least two installments of the series to speed-run through. For this part in the series, pengovsky promised Franci Matoz and a couple of randos, but is it actually a bit heftier than that. So, let’ get going.
pengovsky runs on coffee and sarcasm. There are times when he’d like to high-five some people, preferably in the face, with a chair, but that is usually when he needs another shot of the black juice. So, you can prevent unnecessary hypothetical violence by buying him a coffee or two, using this link. Give peace a chance, or something…
Ignacija Fridl Jarc, minister of culture (wars)
Like Tadej Ostrc for health and Andrej Šircelj for finance, Ignacija Fridl Jarc is a good fit for the ministry of culture. Not necessarily in terms of policies she will pursue, but in terms her actually being familiar with the field she is by an order of magnitude more qualified for her post than – to give an example at random – Anže Logar is for his.
Fridl Jarc has a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy and is an established researcher and author in the field. She also has distinctly conservative outlook on the role and function of culture in the society. Which, OK. One doesn’t need to be ideologically aligned to be competent. More importantly, she was also state secretary at ministry of culture during Janša 3.0, so she also knows the apparatus.
Does that make her an adult in the room, along the lines of Šircelj and Kajzer? Not necessarily. But also not necessarily through any fault of hers.
During her parliamentary hearing, Fridl Jarc casually dropped that the law on RTV Slovenia will be on the chopping block and redone. This, of course, is the key tenet of the far-right element of this coalition. Abolish the RTV contribution (think BBC fee) and fund the whole thing directly from the budget. This, of course, would either make RTV SLO a classic state media, or a sitting duck for defunding drives whenever Branko Grims MEP (so give an example at random) saw a news item he didn’t like.
Theatre, dance, architecture and all the other forms of art are also super important and there are scores of people itching to hold Fridl Jarc’s feet to fire over them. But the main question is whether she will stand up to the radicals in her coalition and defend the public media or whether she will eagerly carry water for them.
Pengovsky is not holding his breath.
Monika Kirbiš Rojs, minister for cohesion funds, local self-government and Marko Lotrič’s ego
One of the problems with the political cesspool in Muddy Hollows is that sometimes people make it who have no business making it. Yes, Resnica and Zoran Stevanović, but also, in somewhat different fashion, president of National Council Marko Lotrič.
Like, the dude has a long and distinguished entrepreneurial career and as he grew old and (presumably) bored, he wanted to play politics a bit, too. And so he ended up as the boss of the institutional monstrosity that is the National Council. There, he needed someone who actually knew how this stuff works. Enter Monika Kirbiš Rojs, who became both the all-powerful secretary general of the Council and Marko Lotrič’s handler.
The dynamic duo was instrumental in forming Fokus Marka Lotriča party (the aptly named FML) which – together with SLS – formed the ++ part of NSi++. And since it apparently helps in this coalition to have a male president, FML got a ministerial posting and SLS didn’t.
Thankfully, Lotrič realised early on that the president of the National Council is way higher on the official food chain than a mere minister. That, and the workload is much lighter. So he arranged within the NSi++ mini coalition that his right hand got the job she is intimately familiar with.
Because other than handling Marko Lotrič, Kirbiš Rojs is also very familiar with how EU funding and cohesion funds work. Which makes her a natural and – given the talent pool the Glorious Leader is working with – an obvious choice for the post. But EU funds and cohesion policy is not exactly a top-tier portfolio and she will be under constant pressure to deliver whatever minister for EU funds and cohesion policy has to deliver. Possibly, her biggest critics will not even be in the opposition (although that, too) but in SLS, the NSi++ party which was left out in the cold when it came to job dispersal.
Mateja Ribič, minister of demography, family, social affairs and flying under the radar
pengovsky was absolutely no fucking idea where she came from, what her qualifications are or how is she related to the field. Apparently she was state secretary to Janez Ciger Kralj at the ministry during Janša 3.0. But no-one really noticed because pandemic and because state secretary Cveto Uršič was the main policy maker back then.
Aparently, Ribič and Cigler Kralj go way back, but other than that, I’ve got nothing. Sorry.
Franci Matoz, consigliere to PM minister of internal affairs and public administration
So, let’s get this out the way immediately. No matter how qualified Franci Matoz (thinks he) might be to run not one, but two portfolios that are fucking huge, the fact that he was, (is?) and presumably will be Janez Janša’s personal lawyer, stinks to high heaven.
This is quite literally on the level of The Orange Menace appointing Todd Blanche as Attorney General. The difference being that Trump failed in doing so whereas Matoz’s nomination was approved swimmingly.
The conflict of interest here simply beggars belief. Sure the National Investigation Bureau and the police in general are technically independent. But are they really? They can be, if the people running them can assert their independence and if the minister heading the portfolio has their back. (See Bobnar, Tanja, and Golob, Robert).
But what if the minister of the interior is not only a Party man, loyal to the Glorious Leader, but also his consigliere personal lawyer, whose main professional activity was getting his boss out of legal tight spots for the better part of the last fifteen years?
Nice career you have there. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.
The audacity of Matoz’s appointment is so huge that it almost hides two other important developments that came with it.
First, that Franc Kangler of Maribor is back from the dead to server as state secretary to interior minister Matoz. Just for funsies, go read that last sentence again, aloud. Se what happens. And as if this sort of zombie politics is not enough, Marshal Twito also merged the ministry for public administration into the ministry of interior. This effectively deprived the administrative backbone of the state of an independent and top-level seat at the table and rolled back the clock almost twenty years.
Ironically, the portfolio was established in 2004, under the government of … checks notes … Janez Janša. But it seems that the Glorious Leader has come to realise that an independent(-ish) public administration is more of an obstacle to his grand designs than anything else. Which is why he killed it once before, in 2012. But Miro Cerar revived it in 2014 and now Janša is counting on Matoz to do the job properly.
Which Matoz may well do. Unless he is hauled off by the fashion police before that. Because my dude, we need to talk about this backpack. It’s giving cringe Russian tourist.
Next up: more randos and the Truthers supporting act. Stay tuned.
