Yesterday saw the second half of the grand opening of the Stožice sports complex. Less demanding construction-wise, but incredibly more important in terms of symbolism, the new Stožice Stadium is quite probably the high-point of Zoran Janković‘s first term as mayor of Ljubljana.
The 16,000-seat stadium was understandably packed and the atmosphere wonderful. If you can’t wait, you can skip the rest of the text and go straight to the video. For the two of you remaining, a bit of context
With the opening of the stadium a sort of spell was broken. Whoever touched the issue of the new stadium in the past ten years crashed and burned politically. Not Janković. The standing ovation he received yesterday and the day before symbolises his complete victory over everyone who ever opposed the new stadium and arena, regardless of how good their arguments might have been.
As crni rightfully pointed out yesterday, this indeed was (at least to an extent) a classic case of panem et circenses. All the more so as Janković is a very populistic politician with quick reflexes and an extremely good touch for public opinon. However, he offsets the perils of politicking from one public opinion poll to another by following his vision (or, as his opponents would say, delusions) which is clearly long term-oriented.
Some say that by building Stožice complex Janković erected himself a monument. They couldn’t be more wrong and it only shows that the main difference between Janković and the rest of the political pool in this city is in the fact that Zoki thinks big. And I mean big. Whoever went about meddling with the stadium project, dealt solely with the stadium and ended up screwing everything up. Janković didn’t just want a stadium. He wanted a sports hall (two of them in fact), an auxiliary football pitch and a huge shopping centre, all with a price tag of some 360 million euro.
And the same goes for the “monument issue”. Stožice are not nearly big enough for Janković to consider them a monument befitting him. A radically changed city, now that’s a different matter. That might be just enough of a monument for our bold mayor 😀
But this self-induced aura of grandeur Janković radiates is compensated by actually getting things done. He was known to spend hours and days on Stožice construction site. Pengovsky heard of stories how he literally threw one of the principal contractors out of his office half-way through the project, almost hurling papers after him and telling him to brush up on his arithmetic since he obviously didn’t know how to calculate costs of the project correctly. I’ve no idea how much of the story is true, but it goes on to add that the entire spread-sheet was covered with cross-outs in red ink and recalculated by hand by the illustrious (and industrious) mayor.
And – politically speaking – he did it all by himself, possibly (but it is way too early to say for sure) securing himself a comfortable second term with an absolute majority in the city council.
Aside from a well-meaning but very late move by education and sports minister Igor Lukšič (who is yet to receive flak over it from the opposition), Janković got no help from the state whatsoever. Zero. Zilch. Nothing. Nada. The much-debated financial construction was perfectly sound at the start of the project. But then everything fell apart. First the government (then still led by Janez Janša) withdrew monies earmarked for the project, then the crisis struck, then Serbian Delta pulled out of the project and Janković together principal contractors ended up in an unenviable pants-down-dick-in-hand position. But rather then dropping everything they pressed on, much to dismay of ever increasing number of critics, which included the political left.
Which is why Janković didn’t lift an eyebrow, when the 12,000 strong crowd booed Prime MinisterBorut Pahor, when the mayor announced him prior to Tuesday’s opening of the Arena. It was Zoki’s own private “fuck you” to the PM. His moment of vindication and gloating came moments earlies when the same crowd cheered him fanatically. And when Janković told the crowd to stand up in honour of the people who worked in the project and the people did what they were told, he probably knew what Janez Janša felt, when he during an independence day celebration in mid-90s told people (even those watching on television) to stand up in honour of those who died for independence. Just sayin’ 🙂
But be that as it may, there was a lot of standing yesterday too. Not because anyone told the crowd to stand up (no that note: Zoki’s speech was mercifully short) but because it was a good game. And you don’t sit through good games 🙂
It has been nearly three years since this post and over two years since construction of the new Stožice football stadium and sports hall began. Yesterday we saw the first results
The (unofficially named) Arena Stožice is a thing of beauty. While 12,500 seats may not be all that much compared to other, more renowned halls out there, it can be safely said that there is not a bad seat in the house. Acoustics are awesome and the whole thing does indeed look beautiful. Both from the inside as well as outside.
Not everything went according to plan. The final permit for issued only this morning and Bob knows what would happen if the stadium and the Arena wouldn’t have been ship-shape. But truth be told, no one really doubted that the permit would be issued. After all, certain parts of the current government and civil service are bending over backwards to accommodate him. But then again, there wasn’t a project like this in Ljubljana since 1982 and it is probably right and proper that the civil service is slightly more expedient than usual.
But the final permit turned out to be the least of Janković’s worries. Just as the final deadline was looming, one of the subcontractors flipped because he was owed a serious amount of money by Grep (the principal contractor) and as a result threatened to block the entire complex by parking trucks and heavy machinery around it. The whole thing even went so far that the ministry of transport closed the northern Ljubljana ring road for heavy trucks citing safety concerns, but in reality preventing the truckers’ protest. But since there were some eighteen trucks already parked in front of the Arena, the whole thing could have turned into a real mess.
Luckily it didn’t. The principal contractor and another subcontractor found a solution to satisfy the unhappy subcontractor, the machinery was removed and four hours later Slovenia played Spain in a basketball friendly and lost 72 to 79.
Today Slovenia plays Australia in a football friendly. Photos will be forthcoming tomorrow 🙂
P.S.: Yes, this undoubtedly was a part of Janković’s re-election campaign. But we’ll deal with that in due course.
The referendum was called by an act of the parliament, with 78 out if 90 MPs voting in favour. Whether they explicitly said so or not, all parties have thus agreed to relegate the matter to the direct will of the people and have thus (implicitly, at the very least) bound themselves to respect and adhere to the decision, whatever the outcome.
It seems some people just don’t know when to quit. While technically perfectly entitled to do so, by challenging the ratification the opposition is again demonstrating its own perverse understanding of democracy, whereas a decision is just and correct only when they say so. Anything else is apparently unconstitutional, unpatriotic and a treasonable offence.
If you google terms Pavle Gantar andDouglas Adams together, you get zero relevant results. And yet it looks like president of the parliament is a huge fan of the man who gave us that wholly remarkable book with the words “Don’t panic!” written on its cover in nice, friendly letters. If that is not the case, than the probability factor of him calling local elections exactly on 42 (or, if you like on 10/10/10) are exactly two to the power of two-hundred-and-sixty-seven-thousand, seven-hundred-and-nine to one against. Well, in reality, the probability factor is slightly higher, but you get the point.
A unique process, that exists mostly in so-called “Democratic” countries, in which several different idiots try to convince the general population of a country to put a little piece of paper with a particular idiot’s name on it into an envelope, and then stick the envelope into a big wooden box (in some countries this process has been replaced by clicking their name in a computer). Sounds silly? It will sound even sillier when you realize that this is the form of ruling in these countries. That is, instead of doing something sensible, like getting all the potential leaders into a room and having them throw mud at each other to decide who wins, they do it this way. An even more unsual factor than the elections themselves is the election “campaign”. This is where all the various idiots (a.k.a politicians) make nice colorful posters and TV commercials with catchy tunes to convince you to “vote” (put the envelope with their name in it into the wooden box) for them, or not to vote for others. In “non-democratic” countries, the process is made simpler by the fact that all the notes have only one name on them.
If anything, the above goes especially for Slovenian local elections. No wonder that the guide supplanted the Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge 🙂
But OK, enough fooling around. Yes, the president of the parliament called this year’s municipal elections on 10 October. At the moment Slovenia has 210 municipalities which means 210 mayoral and council elections. Pengovsky will leave it to you to decide on the absurdity of the situation of having one mayor per 9500 citizens and will instead focus on the most interesting part of the race: local elections in the capital Ljubljana.
President of the parliament Gantar sets election date (source: The Firm™)
Here, the situation is intriguing to say the least. Incumbent mayor Zoran Janković announced as early as December 2009 that he will seek re-election and ever since most of city political parties were preoccupied with deciding whom to run against Janković or whether to enter the mayoral race altogether.
Seven months later there are only four confirmed candidates. Janković himself, Mojca Kucler Dolinar of Christian-democratic Nova Slovenija, Meta Vesel Valentičič of DeSUS (the pensioner’s party) and Miha Jazbinšek, the lone rider of city politics, who will officially run on the Green party ticket, but is considered to be an institution unto himself. Additionally, the Liberal democrats (LDS) have apparently decided against running with their own man (or woman) and will support Janković for mayor instead. Reportedly, Zares are leaning towards that same move, although there’s no official word on it yet.
This basically leaves the Ljubljana branches of Borut Pahor’s Social democrats and Janez Janša’s SDS to pick their candidates. And this is where the fun starts. Not that there’s any particular rule to it, but traditionally local party leadership does not run for mayoral positions, but rather go for slightly less demanding and more behind-the-scenes council positions. However, both SD and SDS will probably be forced to put up their respective branch presidents against Janković which should make the Elections of 42 rather interesting, and for two reasons.
Pengovsky already wrote about the fact that little love is lost between Janković and the leadership of Ljubljana Social democrats, specifically between him and branch president Metka Tekavčič. If (or when) the two will be head to head in the debates, sparks will probably be flying all over, as Tekavčič is known for her smile-and-stab talk, which is precisely what ticks Janković off. On the other hand the incumbent mayor has a fuse the length of a closely-mowed grass and is liable to crush Tekavčič into sun dust. It will probably not be pretty, but it will be fun.
Janez Janša’s SDS has similar problems. But different. Theirs was a candidate eagerly awaited, not in the least because Janković took innumerable pot-shots against SDS and Janša, especially after Janša’s government took some 60 million euro in municipality financing away from Ljubljana (or, as they would say: redistributed the monies differently) and relations just went from bad to worse to childish. Ljubljana SDS branch was caught between a rock and a hard place as they had to defend Janša’s policies and moves which were down right insulting towards the capital city. However, rather than amend his party’s stance towards the city, Janša had the leadership of Ljubljana SDS replaced and for a while it seemed they were on a roll.
SDS presented their election platform as early as March this year and former minister of development Žiga Turk was widely speculated to be their pick for the mayoral race. But then it all fell apart. In the aftermath of Janša’s defeat on the referendum on the Arbitration agreement Turk made a Shermanesque statement about not running for mayor and SDS has been quiet on the issue ever since. And so it seems that Dragutin Mate, newly minted leader of Ljubljana SDS and Janez Janša’s war buddy will have to run and take one for the team. Because as things stand now, he has zero chances of defeating Janković.
So the main threat Janković is facing is not from the right but from the left side of the political spectrum, as Vesel Valentinčič and especially Tekavčič can (if the events unfolded unfavourably to Janković) chip off just enough votes to force a second round. In all honesty, this looks unlikely to happen at this time, but it is a possibility that can not be discounted.
Plan B, however, is much more realistic. While some parties will support Janković as mayor, every single party will run for seats in the city council with its own tickets. During this term Janković and his List (not a true party, but a political association for all intents and purposes) held an absolute majority of 23 out of 45 total votes in the council. All other parties and lists in the council aim to prevent that from happening again. But Janković, not to be outdone, is going for broke and wants to repeat the result. We’ll deal with the implications of either outcome some other time, but point is this will be the main battle of 2010 local elections in Ljubljana.
Should be fun. And sleeping will once again be for pussies.
Pengovsky skipped on blogging altogether last week and he really has no excuse other than…. Ah well, there’s no excuse, really. Sleeping is for pussies. But there you go 🙂 Anyways, there’s a lot to write about. The date for municipal elections has been set, a referendum is to be held on the new Ljubljana zoning act, Kosovo‘s independence has been declared legal, PM Pahor is doing rounds on post-war graves, Nova Ljubljanska Banka just barely passed the stress test, so shit is going on.
However, pengovsky has an axe to grind first.
Authors of the manifesto in audience with PM Pahor (photo by Voranc Vogel/Delo)
Last week (or was it a week before?) a group of journalists of pengovsky’s generation (i.e.: not as young as we’d like to be, but “young” for all intents and purposes, especially with regard to the old journalistic farts out there) issued a plea, nay, a list of seven demands, prompted by yet another shady media takeover or an attempt thereof.
The straw that broke the camel’s back
Namely. Laško Brewery, now headed by Dušan Zorko is desperate to get its finances in order after Boško Šrotwrecked havoc during his prolonged and ultimately failed MBO. One of the brewery’s assets is also an indirect stake in Maribor-based Večer daily, which is officially owned by Delo daily which in turn is owned by Laško Brewery. To cut a long story short: Delo has to unload Večer due to possible competition infringement, while Laško needs assets and will possibly have to sell Delo as well. It turned out that Delo’s 75% share in Večer will be bought by a Murska Sobota-based IT company 3LAN, which has no record of media ownership or even anything remotely connected to the field. The sum? 9,4 million euro.
One can see from a mile away that 3LAN is basically someone’s straw company. The company does not have even remotely enough assets to buy Večer. It’s total assets amount to some 350.00 euro, while it ran a 44.000 euro profit in 2009. It employs four people. Not what one would call a traditional media owner.
The manifesto
Journos went apeshit. It looked the same old story all over again, only with different players. With the situation in the industry hitting new lows basically daily, this was only the last push a group of journos in their 30s (or thereabouts) needed to draft a seven-points list of demands which the government must in their view fulfil if Slovenia is to have a decent media market. The abridged version is as follows
1. Media are institutions of particular importance which ensure the constitutional right of citizens to be informed.
2. Before OKing a sale of 20+% of a particular media, the ministry of culture must obtain an opinion of journalist of media in question
3. When credible suspicion that the buyer is a straw company is aroused, ministry must act and alert relevant institutions.
4. Managerial and editorial functions must be separate unless agreed otherwise by the journalists of the media in question
5. Journalists must give their consent to all crucial decisions of the media company affecting their work, including changing of content profile, appointing and dismissing editors, et cetera.
6. The law on media should stipulate that journalists should use the highest ethical and professional standards in their work
7. Every journalists must be allowed a degree of autonomy and independence regardless of any and all personal circumstances (including but not limited to race, gender, sexual and political orientation)
Now. In general, there’s nothing wrong the above list. Pengovsky might take an issue with a couple of points which either show that the authors are naïve or have little idea about the other – managerial – side of the business. But be that as it may, their demands are not the real problem. The problem is to whom they made them.
Upon drafting the list of demands (which could liberally be even interpreted as a manifesto), the leaders of the movement demanded an audience first with minister of culture Majda Širca and then with Prime MinisterBorut Pahor. Both agreed to meet them and listen to their demands. And this where problems start.
When one of your job descriptions is to keep tabs on what the government says and does, the last thing you want to do is call them to help.
Just who do you think you are?
Let me explain. What we witnessed Monday before last was a pure lobbying action. A couple of people used their access to decision makers to plead their case. If the media owners had done it, it would be sort of OK (I’m knowingly neglecting the fact that it would be taken as a final proof that these-and-these media are pro-government). Hey, if you run a big business and run into a problem, the PM can at least be told about it in person.
True, the situation in Slovene media is literally fucked up. Media owners as a rule have no concept of what they want to do with their assets and generally view them as a tool to further their political and/or business interests. There are notable exceptions to the rule, but in general this is very much true. As a result, the quality of media content is nose-diving and shows no signs of levelling out, let alone rising again. This is further increased by the fact that ever more journos either don’t have the slightest idea about what quality content really is or they just don’t give a fuck and simply go for shameless self promotion, without any regard for what they report on or how they report it. Thus the plea by journalists who are competent (and on the whole, the authors of the manifesto are competent) is even more understandable and welcome.
However, these guys and gals misinterpreted their access to top decision makers as leverage rather than just a cool, if biased, source of information, which is what it really is. Going for cover to the people you cover (pun very much intended) is simply not kosher. It is in fact tantamount to selling one’s soul.
Between a rock and a hard place
Slovene journalists are caught between a rock and a hard place, i.e.: between the urge politicos have to plant their version of the truth and the need of owners to have a content that sells. Years ago, when Janša’s government bulldozed through the media, journalists who would not bow to political pressure skedaddled from some media companies to some others, where they were supposedly safe from having to believe in The One Truth (as interpreted by then-PM Janez Janša and his flock). However, there’s no free lunch and soon those who provided safe haven presented their own bill, mostly in terms of demanding content “that sells” which meant content that is cheap to produce. And a lot of it, if you please.
However, now that media owners are bringing the pressure to bear the younger generation of journalists (for want of a better word) is doing that same mistake, just in the opposite direction. They are seeking alliance with a powerful player (politics) in trying to ease the pressure of the other powerful player (media owners). Needless to say that they too will be presented with a bill.
What they forgot or decided to ignore is the age-old truth that a journalist’s only true ally is his or her public. In this case, the public was ignored, or rather, it was simply notified of the journalists’ plea. It was never asked to get involved actively. Journos may be the ones producing (or being forced to produce) shitty content, but it is the public which consumes it. And the fact that circulation of printed media and ratings of electronic media are dropping fast is one of the indicators that the public is instinctively fed up with the shit Slovene media put out daily.
It’s about the ownership, stupid!
However, pengovsky fears that the fight might already be lost. The sad truth is that quality content can be produced but it is not. Why? Because it is expensive and the owners just won’t have that. And why is that? Because they do not understand the way the media work. And truth be told, it is somewhat hard to understand why ludicrous amounts of money should be spent on journos and their teams chasing stories which more often than not turn out to nothing, financing wild-goose chases and hanging around in bars, binge drinking and trying to pick up rumours. But good content comes from years of experience and the ability (given or acquired) of sorting though tons of bullshit to find what is really important.
But to have the balls to pay for that, one must understand media. And no one understands it better than people who work in media. Sadly, they do not own the media. Not anymore, that is. You see, once upon a time, when Slovenia went about its particular version of privatisation, journalists (and other media people) were given stock in the companies they worked for. However in a true early-capitalism manner most of them sold that stock. Sure, they got a new car, maybe even bought a flat, but with that they relinquished what little control they had over the company they worked for. And with that they lost the leverage on what is being produced.
Which brings us to the very core of the manifesto: the question of journalistic autonomy. In this case, the autonomy from short-term interests of media owners. Which is all fine and dandy. I mean, it would be nice if the owners, editors and journos would be on the same boat as far as content and development of any given media company is concerned, but the responsibility for making this happen lies predominantly with the owners. However, politics is neither the place to seek autonomy not the instrument by which it will be achieved. It never was and it never will be. Again, the only way Slovene journos regain their autonomy is by winning back the respect and appreciation of the reading (viewing, listening) public.
Blood money
Therefore if (and pengovsky has no reason to believe otherwise) proponents of this latest journalistic cry for help really want to bring Slovene media to a new high, they should get the public, not politics, behind them. The way they went about it now is trying to do the right thing for the right cause, but fucking up big time. Not unlike what Judas did some 2k years ago, at least according to Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Oh, and one more thing: The fight for autonomy never ends. It’s just the nature of the beast. And a little pressure usually is a good thing. It keeps one on their toes.
And I don’t mean his Volkswagen, Volvo, or whatever it is Danilo Türk used to drive before he got elected. No, I mean his official wheels, a 2007 BMW 530ix which is (well, was) a part of presidential motor-fleet. Worth around 30k €, the car was apparently stolen almost a month ago in Ljubljana. According to POP TV, the car was used by one of the drivers, whereupon it was broken into and driven away.
While we may be dealing with simple case of grand theft auto here, there is a distinct possibility that the car was stolen for purposes other than just delivery somewhere East of Ukraine. Those of you who follow this blog a bit longer will remember that theft at this high a level is not uncommon in this country. Chances are, this is just another entry in the ever-longer list of security breaches that are never fully explained or investigated (at least officially). Just like post-election break-in into headquarters of Social Democrats in early 2009.
I mean, seriously, people?! If security at the highest level of politics sucks that much, then Slovene security services are a bunch of diletantes and amateurs. But I’m not buying that. Not yet, anyway. Since we’re dealing with a presidential limo, the possibility of this being an intelligence job, increases dramatically and a thorough cleaning of the barn is probably in order. But whatever the case, this is one big multi-level fuck-up.
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