Slovenia | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Flash Flood Of Unity

Pengovsky was either on vacation or steeped in work over the summer. Or both. As a result this here blog got slightly less love than it would have deserved. But that is all water under the bridge now. Or water over the bridge, as it were, as the flash flood in early August wreaked havoc in parts of the country and turned Muddy Hollows from a parable to a literal and very painful fact.

Borut Pahor, Janez Janša and Robert Golob at the one of the sites of the flood disaster — *Borut Pahor, Janez Janša and Robert Golob, united af. (source)*

But with this site being what it is, we should take a look at the political aspects to the calamity, too. Because in the true spirit of that New Yorker cartoon, raging waters may have destroyed large tracts of the country, but for a beautiful moment in time created a lot of unity across the entire political spectrum.

Danijel Bešič Loredan And The Third Rail Of Slovenian Politics

Danijel Bešič Loredan joined the long and distinguished list of former ministers of health of the republic of Muddy Hollows. Handpicked by PM Robert Golob personally to oversee the portfolio, he threw in the towel on Friday afternoon. Apparently, the brawler who liked to do things mano-a-mano, suffered one setback too many.

Danijel Bešič Loredan as Confused John Travolta — *Danijel Bešič Loderan as confused John Travola seems very much a propos*

Health system is a classic third rail of Slovenian politics. Touch it, and you’re most likely dead. Which, in a nutshell, is what happened to Bešič Loredan. Albeit much of it is his own fault, too. I mean, if you’re going to screw around with a high-voltage system, you better know what you are doing. And wear some thick protection. On that count, DBL went zero for two. Fuck around to find out.

About THAT Janša Retirement Teaser

Muddy Hollows celebrated her birthday last week. And it just so happened that a few days before the big event, N1 media outlet reported that Janez Janša apparently floated the possibility of political retirement. This obviously stopped the political and pundit class dead in their tracks. It also made the off-year anniversary of Slovenian independence that much more interesting.

Silhouette of Janez Janša facing a sunset, symbolising retirement. A composite image. — Is the Glorious Leader riding off into the sunset?

On that note, pengovsky should point out that president NPM delivered her first state-of-the-nation-ish speech as part of the official festivities. And did a fine job of it. She also didn’t mention Marshal Twito, at least not directly. But she did tear him a brand new asshole by forcefully rejecting casual references to civil war. Something Janša was throwing around liberally over the past few weeks.

Anže Logar Takes The Plunge

Former presidential hopeful, foreign minister in the last Janša regime and SDS wonderboy Anže Logar made the long-anticipated, on-again-off-again move and went solo. That said, “plunge” in the title is doing a lot of heavy diving, as it were. If anything, he jumped into the kiddy pool, with floaties on and daddy watching from the sidelines.

Anže Logar and founding members of Platforma Sodelovanja. — Platforma Sodelovanja skeleton crew /w Anže Logar in the middle (source)

Logar, still very much a leading Party member, followed the well-established playbook on launching a high-profile political project in Muddy Hollows. He formed an association. A true, honest-to-god debate club. Think Gentlemen’s Horticultural Society, only it includes women, too. And so, Platforma Sodelovanja (Platform of Cooperation) was born.

Top Court Clears Way For New RTVSLO Law. Kind Of.

The Constitutional Court on Friday lifted the stay of execution of the new RTVSLO legislation. Thus it put out the flaming bag of dogshit it created with the February decision. As a result, despite the court not yet ruling on the substance of the complaint, new RTVSLO management and oversight bodies can take over. They can then finally stop the political clown-car that has been running the public broadcaster into the ground for the last eighteen months.

The Boy with the flute, the RTVSLO symbol, superimposed on a Constitutional Court plaque, combined with a green traffic light. — *Constitutional Court green-lit new RTVSLO legislation (picture by Capt. Obvious)*

That said, the Court also ended up with quite an egg on it face. Mostly for reasons pengovsky pointed out back in February. The court desperately tried to avoid a political fallout. Yet it achieved exactly the opposite and cooked up a clusterfuck of epic proportions in the process. Among other things, it allowed dismantling of RTVSLO to continue unabated, thus failing its own “lesser or two evils” test. It also rendered itself inoperative on this issue. Which is why the top judicial body had to resort to some pretty messy lawyering to sort out this shit out. Kind of.