Elections '26 | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

When You’re In A Campaign Hole…

With three weeks left in this campaign, the race in Slovenian parliamentary election is tightening. And this being Muddy Hollows and whatnot, of course (some) parties chose the stupidest of hills to die on.

Seats in Slovenian parliament. The prize in every election and the focus of any campaign. — *Seats in Slovenian parliament. The prize in every election*

The hill in question being the digital presence of influencer Aleksandar Repić. Like, fucking everything is in play and yet the right wing picked a influencer-pimp as their cause célèbre. You literally cannot make this shit up.

Muddy Hollows Election Campaign: Party Like It’s 2018

For an election campaign that is as bereft of ideas asthat parrot was of life, things are both surprisingly active in Muddy Hollows these days. Or maybe it is precisely because of that, as the political class needs to be seen doing something. Even if it all amounts to practically nothing.

A standard issue ballot box, the likes of which will be used after the 2026 election campaign wraps up in Muddy Hollows. Robert Golob, Janez Janša, Anže Logar and the rest of the gang act as if they can't wait for this to be over. — A ballot box. Really.

This blogger is a couple of days late with this post because there were things to see, people to do and because adulting is hard in general. But there’s also the fact that public opinion polls are remarkably stable and have been for a while. With less than a month to go, it is now beyond obvious that this is a base-only campaign.

Immovable KPK Meets Unstoppable Golob

It has been over two weeks since PM Robert Golob was slapped with a KPK ruling over his actions in the Bobnar Boondoggle. Pengovsky was going to write it up soonest but there were things to see and people to do. Also, adulting is hard. Be that as it may, the intervening days have shown that Apex Avian had developed some remarkable survival skills. Not really Teflon, because he is not out of the woods yet, but remarkable nevertheless.

A Who Would Win meme featuring Slovenian PM Robert Golob and KPK, the country's anti-graft commission, investigating the PM for corruption and conflict of interest. — *A meme for (of?) the ages*

The most remarkable thing about it is that Gibanje Svoboda is keeping the pace with SDS of Janez Janša. This, despite the fact that the opposition is in full offensive mode. Whisper it, but GS may even closing the gap slightly, depending on which pollster does the polling. It seems that whatever bad juju this story was going to generate, it was already priced in by Golob’s supporters. At this point they simply don’t give a flying fuck anymore. Does that remind you of anyone?

The Restaurant at the End of the (Left-Liberal) Universe

The history of every major political party in Muddy Hollows tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question ‘How can we run the government?’ the second by the question ‘Why do we run the government?’ and the third by the question ‘Where shall we have lunch‘?

Robert Golob hosted leaders of left-liberal parties at a posh restaurant in Ljubljana. Everyone came and agreed to play nice. — *PM Golob welcoming playing host at an admittedly posh restaurant (source)*

With apologies to Douglas Adams, there simply is no better way to describe today’s huddle of the six parties comprising the left-liberal half of the Slovenian political spectrum. To an untrained eye, the lunch date may have seemed like an overture to tighter political collaboration or even semi-unification. In reality, these guys went to lunch because they were hungry.

Slovenian Election To Be Held On 22 March, Says The Prez

Parliamentary election in Muddy Hollows is scheduled for 22 March this year. This is the gist of a decree president Nataša Pirc Musar signed earlier today. The date is not a surprise as NPM said as much just before Christmas. But it does mean that as of today the game is officially afoot.

President Nataša Pirc Musar set 22 March this year as election day for electing a new Slovenian parliament. — *President Pirc Musar signing the election decree (photo: Bor Slana/STA)*

Both readers of course know that the game has actually been afoot at least since October. The only real casualty here is pengovsky’s slightly tongue-in-cheek projection of 8 March as election date. But for that to happen, a lot of things would have to fall in place. Including a pliant president. And we know how things are in that department.

Court Hobbles Health Reform, But There’s A Catch

In what could arguably be described as a Christmas Eve dump (or a Christmas miracle, depending on your point of view), the constitutional court hobbled a key piece of PM Robert Golob’s much-vaunted health reform. Apparently, Santa is not the only one to have a naughty and nice lists. Slovenian constitutional court has them, too. Sometimes in the same ruling.

Constitutional court annulled a key provision of the health reform by the government of Robert Golob. But it also threw him a lifeline. — *Constitutional Court provided some Christmas cheer for some. For others, not so much (source)*

That said, the court also upheld a different part of the same law, as well as deferred ruling on other points of the challenge at a later date. There are probably good reasons for this, but pengovsky would also like to think that the court decided to split the difference on key issues, kick the rest of the can down the road and tried to be home by dinner. It is Festivus, after all.