Category: Slovenia

Hey, got a watch? (source)

Item One: A gang has robbed a luxurious shop with watches in BTC, Ljubljana’s shopping area. They’ve used mace to knock out salespeople and stole some € 80.000 worth of wrist watches.

Item Two: Prime Minister (an avid golfer) has seen it necesary to visit Croatian president (not prime minister) Stipe Mesić. They met during finals of Umag ATP tennis tournament. Janša apparently didn’t mind tennis, and their tete-a-tete seems to have been very important as its content have not yet been leaked to the press.

Item Three: Croatian Prime Minister (not president) Ivo Sanader is both a political rival of Stipe Mesić and an avid collector of rate wrist watches. His rather expensive hobby has recently drawn some extremely bad PR, as he sported watched worth several 10k euros, whereas people in Croatia are faced with increasing costs of living. Croatian oppostition has repeatedly told Sanader that “it is about time you resign” 😀

Item Four: Croatian Prime Minister and his Slovene counterpart, Ivo Sanader and Janez Janša have met yesterday during a football match between NK Domžale and NK Dinamo Zagreb. Again, the content of their confabulation remains confidential. But both PMs seem to have learned their lesson and have stopped talking shop over the phone. Dinamo Zagreb won 2:1.

I know rhese are just coincidences (more or less), but I can totally picture Janša giving Sanader one of the stolen watches saying “Sorry honey! I know I shouldn’t have been with Stipe. Here. I brought you a little something…”

But on a slightly more serious note: Inflation in Slovenia has risen a staggering 2,9 percent from January to July inclusive. In period from July 06 to July 07 there was an even bigger jump in prices – 3,8 percent. At the same time Ministry of Finance has said that everthing is cool and that public spending is being decreased. Which is in stark contradiction with a decision reached a month ago, to increase the budget deficit. So, who’s lying, eh?

It’s just amazing how incompetent aparatchiks can fuck up what others have put together for a decade and a half.

An oath by Slovene collaboationist Home Guard on Ljubljana Stadium, 20 April 1944 (source)

Slovenes like to divide ourselves along various lines. Political, geographical, alocholical, etc… One is therefore not surprised when one finds out that Slovenia sports its own version of the old Jewish proverb. Show me three Slovenes and I’ll show you five political parties. Most of these divisions are rather benign and can be used as a sightseeing attracion, much like hooligan clashes with the police.

However, Slovenes seem to be unable to bury our dead. As avid readers of the more serious posts of this blog know, Slovenia and Slovenes have had a rather nasty World War II. Being earmarked for extinction (ethnical clensing is the modern phrase, I believe), divided between three occupying countries and split internally between guerilla resistance and collaborators.

It all brought plenty of pain and suffering to everyone and even today, more than sixty years later, there are still innocent people who have suffered greatly during the war. Previous (socialist) regime maintanied the hollines of the war and held a position that only those who were on the right side were victims, whereas others were not to be compensated for their trauma. This left our plenty of innocent civilians who were hurt by Partisan or Allied forces (either through mistake or malice), people who were forcefully drafted into German military (and usually sent to the Russian front) or who were mistreated because some of their relatives were colaborators.

It is a shame the previous regime failed to compensate them and it is indeed an ever bigger shame that in sixteen years of democracy this country hasn’t been able to do that. But why is that? Well, because it goes down to the very core of what Slovenia is about and what our values are.

With emergence of democracy emerged (or “re-emerged”, rather) a different vision of Slovenia. A vision held by those, who were defeated in WWII. A vision of a Catholic, anti-communist Slovenia, which has to claim its rightful place among the ancient European nation, a place which it was denied by the success of the Communist revolution and the social upheaval which followed the end of WWII.

It soon became clear, however, that the not-so-secret agenda behind it had called for nothing less than equaling those who have actively fought against the occupator with those who actively fought with the occupator. And it all came down to a bill, which in its present form equals both sides, allowing everyone who was involved to be declared a victim of war. This bill was introduced several times already, but it never made it through the parliament. It always stirred too much emotion, and that was not a good thing for a country that was on the fast track to join the EU and NATO. So it was swept under the rug for as long as possible. Until yesterday, when the right-wing parties re-introduced the bill in the parliament.

My position on the issue is well known and you may freely call me biased. The Bible sayeth: “Judge not, lest ye be judged!“. But I’m more than willing to be judged (at least on this issue) and I say “judge on, oh Pengovsky!”

Namely (and I will say this time and again, if necesary): There was no middle ground during WWII. Not in Slovenia. One had to chose sides. Some people chose unvisely and were ready to sacrifise their own nation to a “lesser evil”. Today, perhaps we understand their reasons better. Surely there must be place for forgiveness in our hearts and minds. Surely the choices of the losing side do not justify the attrocities that were commited when the war had already ended. But never – never – must a fight for a nation’s survival be equaled with condoning a nation’s destruction.

Yes, it is time for us, Slovenes, to finally bury our dead. But those who died for us to survive must be respected, and those who died in vain must be mourned and forgiven. But never glorified. Their deeds are deeds of us all. And their deaths only show that we must make moral choices every day and that we are not inherently right in making them.

Contrary to what Slovene Tourist Board would have you believe, Slovenia is not a neat and tidy country where everyone recycles, doesn’t swear and vacates his/her seat on the bus so that the little old lady can sit dowm. No, sir-ee!

Slovenia is also where white-collar crime was perfected into an art form, mostly because the criminals were people like your next door neighbour, the kind that you’d let your kids go to the seaside with, or invite to your lawn party. Like a former State Secretary (under-minister) for Economic Affairs Boris Šuštar, who was charged with demanding and taking bribes on numerous occasions in exchange for rigging results of various government tenders. In one particular case he was accussed of giving a government grant of 21 million tolars (nearly € 100.000) to a certain company, of which he took a 30 percent cut. Remember, this was done more than seven years ago. Eventually, Šuštar was arrested, caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Just like in the movies he was picked up while receiving some 70.000 deutschmarks (€ 35.000) in bribes in one of Ljubljana’s pubs. But it is here where the plot thickens…

A photo-job of Šuštar, circling the net shortly after his arrest. (source)

Namely… Our legendary justice system almost grinded to a halt on this one. People were unwilling to testify, evidence was lacking and Šuštar’s lawyers did their best to stall the proceedings and/or have a mistrial declared. But defence attorneys are paid to do that, so no problem there.

Why was evidence lacking? Because both crim-police and the prosecution were (and still are) ill equipped for bringing white-collar criminals to justice. I mean – how do you prove that the tender was rigged? Or that particular sum of € 200.000 at the defendants Cayman bank account was to get laundered? Well, you need experts. But if the people at the Attorney General’s office have no financial background, then you get to see bizzare scenes where the defendant is actually explaining the intricacies of financial world to the court, rather than explaining himself/herself.

And why people didn’t want to testify? Not because Šuštar would have some big mafia organisation covering his back and getting rid of witnesses… It’s just that some level of corruption is embedded into Slovene soul. Ripping the state off, making money on the side, not paying any more tax than absolutely necesary, getting better medical care by giving a bottle of whiskey to your doctor, making sure your kid makes it to the next grade by bribing the teacher… All you need is a shotgun and a pair of horses and you’ve got yourself a redneck Christmas!

And on top of that (or maybe precisely because of that), Slovene judiciary failed to revoke Šuštar’s traveling documents, enabling him to flee to…. you’ve guessed it… to Canada 😀

It’s not just that Les Canadiens are awfully nice people whom you generaly like to be around. As far as Šuštar is concerned, there was the small matter of Slovenia and Canada not having an extradition treaty – unlike Slovenia and the USA where Davorin Sadar, another “transition-criminal” took refuge, but a smartass at the ministry of interior dug up an ancient treaty between the USA and Kingdom od Serbia, which was (by quirks of history) inherited by Slovenia as Yugoslavia broke up.

So, if you gotta run, run to Canada! 😀

All the presidential men… and a woman

As you know, Slovenia is up for presidential elections in autumn this year. Now, the President of the Republic of Slovenia is a curious office. It bears relatively little powers, but its influence is near enormous. The office as we know is today exists since winter 1992, when the current constitution was passed. Article 103 of the Constution stipulates that The President is elected by a popular vote for a five-year-term with a possibility of being re-elected once.

Historically, one of the reasons for a constitutionally weak Office of the President is the fact that – when framing the constitution – Milan Kučan was thought to be unbeatable in presidential elections. That indeed happened to be the case, and since Kučan had enourmous moral and political capital stemming from peaceful democratization and achieving independence, there was a tacit agreement among various political powers that be, that Kučan should not be a powerful president.

Thus the office of the President is largely ceremonial, limited to naming ambassadors, promulgating laws and conferring mandates to form a government. That said, however, the President does have extensive emergency powers. Should the National Assembly become unable to convene, the President can declare war or a state of emergency and even pass laws.

But perhaps even more importantly, the office has high moral authorithy, which was achieved (or created, if you will) by two presidents: former President Milan Kučan (held office for two terms from 1992 to 2002) and incumbent president Janez Drnovšek (holds office since 2002, but said that he will not seek re-election).

Slovenes seem to think of their president as a counter-weight to an increasingly self-involved goverment (any government, not just current one) and thus the voters often disregard “party directions” and go for the person they deem most fit to hold office, regardless of the candidate’s party affiliation. But the definition of “fit” is quite flexible, mind you. Take President Drnovšek, for example. Having been elected on a slightly liberal platform (pro-choice, anti-death penatly), he underwent a radical personal transformation from a somber, even uptight and sometimes perfunctionary president, to a new-age, proto-hippy president on a strictly vegan diet. Curiously enough, voters didn’t mind.

And so this autumn somenoe will have to fill a rather large pair of presidential shoes.

Parties of the political right have found a common candidate in the person of first Slovenian PM and incumbent MEP Lojze Peterle who has been campaigning since last November and is poised to win a substantial percent of the vote – close to 50 %, thus tossing the glove to the political left very early in the game. Since the leader of the Social Democrats Borut Pahor decided to run for PM in 2008, he has to put forward a credible candidate (a rather daunting task, since Pahor is the most popular politician in Slovenia by far).

He picked Danilo Türk, former Slovene Ambassador to the UN and former right-hand man to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Türk is probably a good choice as his achievements are recognised across the political spectrum, making him also acceptable to some right-leaning voters. But for now it seems that Pahor so far failed to “sell” Türk as a common candidate for left-wing parties.

Namely. Liberal Democrats (LDS) have put forward Mitja Gaspari, former Governor of the Central Bank as their nominee… You might remember Gaspari from this post and LDS are apparently counting on a lot od sympathy vote for the fallen Governor. (slightly OT: When Zoran Janković, 6 months after he was ousted as CEO of Mercator, ran for Mayor of Ljubljana, sympathy vote played a crucial role in clinching him a victory in the first round).

Some people believe that the left is better off with two candidates, supposedly ensuring mobilisation of more left-wing voters and making sure they also cast their vote in the second round wheren the best of the two candidates would take on Peterle. Others, of course fear that the vote will be split and that neither of the left-wing candidates will win a substanital percent of vote (say, above 40%), making him unelectable in the second round.

But the second round is by no means a given. It could very well be that Peterle has already built a voters’ base far beyond the reach of any other candidate. He’s been campaigning uninterruped for the past six months and has won support of all three major right-wing parties, clearing the field on the right just for himself. All he has to do is to win enough moderates to get 50% plus one vote and he wins the presidency in the first round.

What may save the day for the left is the fact that there are several “lesser” candidates, which will win a certain percentage of vote, perhaps just enough to stop Peterle short of winning the majority of the vote. These canidadates include Zmago Jelinčič of the Slovene National Party, Darko Krajnc of the Slovene Youth Party, Marjan Beranič, a Maribor-based enterpreneur, Monika Piberl of the Slovene Female Voice and Jože Andrejaš, who won a mock election in Hri-Bar talk show and then decided to run for real.

Anyways… There is more at stake then it seems at a first glance.