Slovenia | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

An Assassination Attempt (or so they would have you believe)

On Friday evening a routine passport control on a train crossing from Slovenia to Croatia almost turned ugly. A passanger on that train, Josip Zagajski, a Croatian war veteran was, supposedly flagged in the Schengen system as having been expelled from Germany in 2008 after apparently serving an eight-year prison sentence for throwing a hand grenade on Turkish embassy in Berlin. After being held for detailed search, and quite possibly refused entry in the EU, Zagajski took out a hand grenade and pulled out the safety pin, apparently wanting to detonate it. It was only a quick reaction by the police officer present that prevented a catastrophe, as he grabbed Zagajski’s wrist and prevented him from releasing the catch which would detonate the grenade.

After Zagajski was neutralised and handcuffed, he turned out to be armed with four additional hand grenades and he claimed that he boarded the train to assassinate Slovenian PM Borut Pahor, because Slovenia unjustly blocked Croatian entry into the EU. Zagajski turned out to have been among defenders of Vukovar during war in Croatia, where he received a head wound and was subsequently held in a Serbian concentration camp, where he was allegedly tortured. After the war, he was declared 90% disabled on account of his psyhological disorders (results of his head wound) combined with PTSD, commonly (but mistakenly) known as the Vietnam syndrome.

After being questioned at Dobova rail road border crossing, Zagajski said that there were a number of his accomplices on the Ljubljana-bound train, which – as a result – was boarded by swat teams after it pulled into Ljubljana railway station. Every passenger was searched and the train swiped for explosives, but luckily none were found.

SWAT teams on Ljubljana Railway Station on Friday Night (photo by Igor Zaplatil/Delo)

Naturally, the whole thing exploded with full force at the moment PM Pahor’s name was mentioned. Media went into a frenzy with big fat titles announcing a botched assassination attempt, newly minted Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor called her Slovenian counterpart to assure him that he denounced Zagajski’s actions and that violence should never be used to solve problems, while PM himself told the press that he feels perfectly safe.

Which was of course true. While the border police were wrestling with the deranged war veteran, trying to save lives, the PM was safely tucked away in the Rogla skiing resort, where Social Democrats met to debate the current achievements (or lack thereof) of Pahor’s goverment. Prior to the meeting some pretty consistent rumours floated around that some sort of mutiny against Pahor will be mounted, possibly led by his party VP and traffic minister Patrick Vlačič (who, incidently, got himself in a pretty bad fix weeks ago, when his car, with him in it, overtook a traffic jam on a highway by driving in the slow lane using flashing blue lights, a privilege he is not entitled to, all because he wanted to be on-time for a talk show).

The mutiny apparently didn’t take place, but the hand grenade incident allowed Pahor to step in front of the cameras not as a party leader whose grip on things is slipping, but rather almost like a statesman who had just survived an assassination attempt, enforcing the image exactly by playing the incident down and being as cool as a cucumber. Media, naturally, went ga-ga and splattered every possible detail about the incident and about security of our top politicians over two pages.

The problem of course is that there was no attempt at Borut Pahor’s life. While Zagajski’s destination was Ljubljana, his “target” was at least a hundred kilometres away in Rogla, which should tell anyone with half a gram of brain that Zagajski had no idea what he was doing. Even calling this a terrorist attempt is stretching it a bit, as it is obvious than rather than media and political attention, Zagajski needs professional help. But media on both sides of the border were quick to pick up on his statement that he was doing this because Slovenia blocks Croatian EU entry and smartly concluded that apparently sour relations between the two countries are starting to take their toll, this time in the form of mental cases trying to kill top politicians.

Which is of course a load of bollocks. Zagajski’s actions are political only insofar as media and politicians put them into a political context. Take that out of the equation, and you’re left with a nutter holding a bomb on a border crossing. I mean, the cops there did one hell of a job, preventing what might have become a real bloodbath and for once our new Fortress Europe and its Schengen system did what they’re suppose to.

But media hyperventilation over Slovenia-Croatia border dispute blows every single thing way out of proportion and gives it connotation it does not necessarily have and is in effect adding to the problem rather than clearing it up.

Do You, Janez Janša…

… take Urška Bačovnik to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?

He did.

(source: POP TV, 24ur.com)

Former PM and current leader of the opposition Janez Janša finally married doctor Urška Bačovnik ending years of speculation about when and if the marriage will take place. Urška made her first public appearance alongside then-PM in late 2006, just as pengovsky started blogging (in Slovene, mind you!) and she immediately became a sort-of-leitmotif of pengovsky.com.

Anyhoo – they got hitched last Saturday in a picturesque church in Drežnica, a small village above Kobarid in Primorska region. The fact that Janša’s SDS held its annual summer get-together in the valley below was only an added bonus, providing scores of well-wishers. And it cut down in transportation and reception costs, as gulash was alredy being served. But this should be a powerful reminder to the bride that she will always have to share her husband with his party. Apparently, as he came out of the church, his first words were “You gotta try this!”

While I’m sure many would like to try Doc Urška, JJ probably didn’t mean that. But is also slightly unclear whether he had already “tried that” years ago, contrary to media reports that this is the first marriage both for Urška and Janez. Namely, several books which deal with late 80’s in Slovenia claim implicitly that Janša was married to Silva Predalilč, with whom he has two children. Silva was with him when he had it real bad in 1988 and then just sort of dissapeared from the radar…

But that’s water under the bridge. Now they are married and without being cynical about it, pengovsky wishes the newly-weds a long and happy marriage.

There is, however, still a question which intrigues me: When Janez and Urška play doctor and nurses – who gets to be the nurse? 😮

Now Hear This

On Saturday pengovsky already hinted at the the curious incident which happened last Thursday during the weekly session of Borut Pahor’s government. Namely, the session was broadcasted (audio only) live over the internet, apparently inadvertently. At least that is what they say it happened.

Government in session. Live if necesary. (source)

The stream (Slovene only) was live for about 37 minutes and most of it was promptly recorded and posted on numerous Slovenian sites and for a moment it seemed as if all hell broke loose. Web portals competed in slapping the fattest title possible on their index page and reactions ranged from chuckles to sheer outrage.

And yet, the recording, whose primary protagonists were minister for public affairs Irma Pavlinič Krebs, interior minister Katarina Kresal, defence minister Ljubica Jelušič, justice minister Aleš Zalar and PM Borut Pahor, showed nothing more than that the goverment was acting according to its job description: debating and implementing policies. In this case a very touchy policy of cuts in employment in the civil service.

Minister Krebs was exasperated by the fact that the government missed every deadline and every target to cut employment in civil service by two percent. Truth be told, every government to date had that same goal and every single one of them spectacularly failed to meet it, endind its term with more people employed than it started with. But Krebs was adamant that something had to be done and it had to be done now, because at the moment this particular policy isn’t worth the paper it is written on. And where better to start than with the police and the army. They also fall into the category of “civil servants”, thanks to brilliantly misguided civil service wages reform executed by Krebs’ predecessor, Gregor Virant.

Naturally ministers Kresal and Jelušič went apeshit and a lengthy debate ensewed, primarily between Irma and Katarina, which was finally put to an end by PM Pahor. But – contrary to media reports this was not a cat-fight, nor was there a bitter argument or anything like that. It was simply a matter of bringing together different points of view. Granted, has this government truly functioned as a team, the differences and details would have been ironed out before hand. But as things stand, the government debated it and – as it happens – did not reach a decision yet. And did so in the most civil and respectful ways possible. The debate wasn’t even properly heated. Every media in-house coordination has more punch to it that this supposedly scandalous broadcast. In the end everybody looked good. Irma for trying desperately to cut down the number of civil servants, Katarina and Ljubica for sticking out fot their men, Aleš because he’d rather resign than see more people go, and – last but not least – Borut, who managed to bring it to the end despite everything.

So, maybe the whole thing was not really an accident but a carefully staged PR event, aimed at showing the government being serious about its job… Or it could have been something completely different.

Celebrating Independence By Beating Up Gays

As most of you know, pengovsky has, time and again warned against rise on neo-Nazism and its various offshots in Slovenia. Be it government pogrom against a Roma family, nationalistic marches on the border aimed at creating border incidents, nationalistic anti-Croatian rallies with a clear superiority agenda, boneheads trying to intimidate a round-table event on intolerance or a (called but cancelled) fascist rally in downtown Ljubljana, modus operandi which is usually associated with shitheads who think that Der Führer had a couple of nifty ideas, is becoming increasingly mainstream, while those same shitheads are becoming ever more self-confident.

Nationalists marching on the afternoon of June 25th and Mitja Blažič after the attack a couple of hours later (sources: Mladina.si and Narobe.si respectively)

The latest incident happened some ten days ago, and while it is not exactly news anymore, it deserves to be written about. Prior to Gay Pride Parade, which was held in Ljubljana on 27 June, a gay-and-lesbian literature night was organised in a bar in Prule, a nice, cozy and slightly bohemian area of Ljubljana. At about 2100 hrs on Thursday 25 June, a group of at least eight hooded and masked people stormed the place, armed with sticks, stones and torches. As he was just in front of the entrance at the time, journalist and gay activist Mitja Blažič took the brunt of the attack, being beaten and repeatedly kicked in the head. Afterwards the attackers tried to set the bar ablaze, causing Blažič some mild burns and – having failed to start a fire – threw stones into the bar’s windows.

The fact that the attack took place on June 25th, Slovenian Independence day makes it all the more appalling.

But then again… In hindsight this attack should not have been a surprise. Neo-Nazi sentiment is building in Slovenia. Slowly but surely. Most of its proponents probably don’t even recognise it as such, but rather think of themselves as patriots who want to protect the country and take it to a new level. The fact that they share that line of though with the second most famous Austrian (after Brüno) does not bother them.

And the fact that the fascist rally, which was cancelled on April 27th, did take place exactly on June 25th, only hours prior to the main celebration of the Day of Independence shows that neo-Nazi agenda is becoming dangerously wedded to the notion Slovenian statehood.

This year they marched by the Republic Square of their own accord. Unchecked, they will be leading the parade in a decade. By then it will be far too late to do anything about it. Luckily, it sometimes does help to have a left-wing government and an interior minister who is big on human rights. The police have proven that they can be remarkably efficient if needs be and have arrested three attackers within days. Apparently they are members of one of the football hooligan groups, where incidentally, where people with superiority issues seem to be especially thick on the ground.

It would be a most dangerous mistake to see this only as a series of unconnected incidents. What we are seeing here is at least a semi-concerted effort to restore neo-Nazi and other superiority ideology and make it a legitimate participant in a public debate. And they seem to be making headway as Hervardi one of these groups, even secured a weekly programme on Radio DUR, one of Ljubljana’s local radio stations.

Ivo Sanader vs. Borut Pahor

Well, sort of, anyway… The following happened more or less by accident yesterday on The Firm™, as pengovsky way lampooning resignation of Croatian PM Ivo Sanader as well some serious “leakage” from Slovene government. More on that in the following days, but suffice it to say, that Thursday’s session of the government was – apparently inadvertently – streamed live over the net, revealing some heavy discord between PM Borut Pahor, minister of public administration Irma Pavlinič Krebs and interior minister Katarina Kresal.

Audio is taken directly from Firm’s archives, while pengovsky spent most of the afternoon putting together the slideshow. Songs include To ni političen song by Vlado Kreslin and Parni Valjak and Maček v žaklju by Let 3. Both songs are Croatian covers of Slovenian songs and are therefore most fitting for the occasion. There’s also a little bit of Požar by Marko Brecelj at the end. For those of you who don’t understand Slovene and/or Croatian, a lot will be lost in translation, unfortunately. But you can still look at the pictures 🙂

Balkan Tricks Like At Home, Only Worse

Common sense dictates that revisiting European elections and their result is a complete waste of perfectly good blogging space. Had all things been equal, that would be so, However, in the words of Mr. Spock, things are not equal. But more on that in a minute.

(source)

Usually, European elections are frowned upon as being only tangentially connected to Slovenian politics (or to politics of any EU member, for that matter), and material evidence seems to support that theory: five years ago, Nova Slovenia (NSi) won despite its marginal standing in parliamentary elections. Results of June 5 elections seem to corroborate this, as NSi got one MEP despite being axed from the national parliament in 2008 elections. Furthermore, both in 2004 and 2009 the turnout was appalingly low, only 28 percent. But if need be, European election can be a bloodbath, which is something Gregor Golobič and his Zares can tell you a lot about.

But first thing’s first – let’s look at the results. Opposition SDS won 26.65 percent of the vote, ruling Social Democrats got 18.45 percent, while Nova Slovenija (NSi) got only slightly less, 16.53 percent. LDS came in fourth with 11.5 percent, while Zares was the last of the parties to get an MEP, with 9.77 percent of the vote. However, in terms of numer of MEP seats won, differences between parties become much less apparent. Both SDS and SD won two seats, while NSI, LDS and Zares won one seat each.

So, the question is, who the hell won? The general media consesus seems to be that SDS scored an overwhelming victory. Given the fact that they beat the largest coalition party and their rivals in public opinion polls by more than eight percent, this certainly seems to be the case. The fact that SD got only 18 percent of the vote (as opposed to getting almost 30 in parliamentary elections nine months ago) only reiterates the feeling.

However…

By that same standard, one could say that the real winner is LDS, which nearly doubled its result from parliamentary elections, when they barely made it past the 4 percent threshold. Furthermore, Gregor Golobič and Zares should be dancing the Mipos Dance of Joy, as they repeated their result from September 2008, despite the copious amounts of flak they were taking due to Golobič’s stumble in the Ultra business. Nine percent after a concentrated media barrage which came from all sides is not to be underestimated. Even less so for LDS, which – not unlike NSi – seemingly made huge gains.

And finally, by the above standard, NSi should be thanking whatever god they believe in, because they were literally brought back from the dead. 16 percent of the vote after they were already down and out.

And it is this last interpretation which casts a shadow of the doubt on the entire approach. How can NSi, which was in turmoil for the better part of the last nine months make a real comeback? And while we’re on that, how can in be that a media lynch of Gregor Golobič has zero (and I mean zilch) effect on his party?

Probably because most of the turnout was by die-hard supporters of their respective parties. Given the low turnout and the capacity of SDS and (partly) NSi to galavinse their base, good results of both parties suddenly don’t seem all that surprising. Namely, a lot of NSi and SDS voters are almost like the Pony Express (neither rain, nor sleet, not snow…), whereas left-wing voters are notoriously undisciplined. But that only goes so far in explaining what really happened. I mean, no-one is forcing right-wing voters to go vote at gunpoint, no matter how appealing that mental image might be

To answer this second question, let’s take a look at the bigger picture: Combined, the left bloc won almost 40 percent of the vote, whereas the right bloc got 43 percent of the vote, counting only parties which won MEP seets. If, however, we included all the parliamentary parties and kept NSi, for the sake of the argument, both blocs got 46 percent of the vote (keeping the nationalists as a separate category).

Things get even more muddy if we look at number of MEP seats won. By this measure, it was actually the left bloc which won, winning four out of seven seats, whereas the right bloc won the remaining three. Point being that overall relations between left and right have not changed a lot. What has changed, were relations between parties. If election results are to be taken for granted, then we have witnessed a redistribution of votes between parties of the same bloc, rather than pure left-right crossovers.

So, who won? If anything, it was a tie. It would be hard to make an argument that everybody lost, however. With 28 percent turnout, results are hardly representative. By any realistic measure, NSi got a disproportionate percentage of the votes and it would be safe to say that this goes for most of the other parties. With 72 percent of the electorate you can hardly say that the results represent anything but a disenchantment with politics in general as well as reflect a certain cynicism regarding European Union.

But in a final twist of irony, European elections in Slovenia are not yet over. Well… Not in Slovenia exactly. More like in Argentina. Where a lot of ex-pat Slovenians live, none of which apparently got empty ballots to vote by mail. And although Argentina is generally regarded as prime hunting ground for NSi, the vote there could decide whether Romana Jordan Cizelj or Zofija Mazej Kukovič will be the second MEP for Janša’s SDS, while neither NSi nor SDS have a chance of getting an additional MEP, and thus shake up the overall balance of power. Nevertheless, the State Electoral Commission decided that voters in Argentina will be able to vote and sent them. And how come voters in Argentina didn’t get their empty ballots? Simple. Argentinian post never delivered them. The same Balkan tricks, just like at home. Only worse :mrgreen:…

Full Disclosure

Gregor Golobič, president of junior coalition member Zares and minister for higher education, science and technology was on top of his game only a week ago when his adamant insistence on non-extension of huge loans to Laško Brewery by Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) caused the freshly minted bank’s CEO Draško Veselinovič to vacate his post prematurely. As you will remember, in mid-April Veselinovič approved an extension of an unsecured loan (a loan without enough collateral) of some 150 million euros to Infond Holding, one of many companies controlled by Boško Šrot in a complicated chain of ownership of Laško Brewery.

Gregor Golobič (photo by Blaž Samec, source)

Two months ago it seemed that it was Katarina Kresal’s LDS, another junior coalition partner who played their cards right. Their man Draško Veselinovič was the head of NLB, the biggest financial institution in the country and their stock soared in terms of influence. But then a series of really stupid moves by Veselinovič and his party (for it is unlikely that he decided on such big issues entirely of his own accord) caused them to lose in a week all that they had painstakingly gained in months.And then shit begun hitting the fan.

Out of nowhere an anonymous report appeared which claimed that Ultra, a high-tech firm from Zagorje, where Golobič was employed during his “exile from politics” between 2003 and 2007, had some 21 million euros of unsecured loans at NLB.Naturally, all hell broke loose, with accusations of double standards, mischievousness and corruption flying in Golobič’s general direction. This was the second time Ultra came under media and political spotlight in recent years. Prior to his electoral victory in 2004, Janez Janša dragged the company through the mud in a series of pre-election parliamentary sessions, where he presented an image of a country infested with clientelism and nepotism where an almighty LDS (yes, I know it’s hard to believe that it’s the same party) decided who made it and who didn’t.According to Janša, Ultra was a prime example of this.

A sligth but necessary digression: Whatever one may think of Ultra, those guys do some really hardcore shit. The company is most widely known in Slovenia for creating Moneta, a mobile-payment solution which is widely used (paying the parking fee by mobile really never was so easy) and which – admittedly – gained popularity once it was adopted by Mobitel, the largest Slovenian mobile operator which just happens to be state-owned.

But pengovsky first heard of the company years ago when I interviewed an attractive and (as it later turned out) freshly-single writer/artist who said that she couldn’t stand her boyfriend (or was it fiancee?) being constantly on call in this company called Ultra, which builds systems for measuring how much oil is lost to vapour during transport. Apparently oilmen went gaga over the prospect of literally seeing their petrodollars vanishing in thin air. Years later The Firm™ built a mobile webpage for LPP – Ljubljana Public Transport (point your phone’s browser to http://mobi.lpp.si) and literally stumbled over their WAP application for bus ETAs, which Ultra built as a part of a comprehensive overhaul of LPP’s IT overhaul. I was amazed that something as useful was wholly unmarketed. We obviously made a link to the application and from what I understand it is the most used part of LPP’s mobile webpage.

Anyhoo. Just as in the summer of 2004, Ultra became an object of half-truths and misinterpretations in the summer of 2009. As accusations of relatively huge unsecured loans were made, Ultra authorised NLB to make a full disclosure. It turned out that the company has about 5 million euros worth of loans, all of which backed up by proper collaterals. Even more, those loans were used to finance company operations rather than MBOs as it the case with so-called “tycoon loans” of Laško and Istrabenz. Afterall, Ultra already is privately owned.A part of this full disclosure was also the fact that Gregor Golobič owns 10% of Ultra SUM, a Dutch-based company, which is the nominal parent-company of Slovenian Ultra, owning about 80% of the latter. So far so good. But when asked about his personal assets during the 2008 election campaign, Golobič failed to mention this particular share of Ultra SUM.

Which is why today he is in such shit.It is one thing not to tell when not asked. But when asked about a touchy subject such as personal wealth, politicans are expected to be forthcoming. When Golobič was elected president of Zares, pengovsky wrote a very cynical post, basically saying that there is no new politics, only old politics done in a new way. Golobič disagreed and thus raised the bar of expectations much much higer.And that is the main problem right now. Technically, Golobič did nothing wrong. It must be said that Gregor Golobič followed the letter of the law and did report his share in the company to the Anticorruption Commission upon becoming minister. Also, his share in the company is small enough (8 percent of Slovenian Ultra) for the company to escape the ban on doing business with the state. The cap is set at 20 percent, a detail pengovsky learned painfully years ago. But apparently when media went on their annual “how-much-do-politicians-earn” rampage (as they do almost every February), Golobič again failed to mention his share in Ultra. Which -when the story broke days ago – only reinforced the appearance that he has something to hide.

Yesterday Golobič admitted to making a mistake and had already apologized for it. He said that he held back on his share in Ultra out of fear of company being dragged through the mud yet again just because he owns a part of it, but reiterated that he did report his ownership to propper authorities. He condeeded that his actions go against the principle of transparent and accountable governing and that a basic trust, necesary for creating resposnible and trustworthy politics, was tainted. He added, however, that it remains to be seen whether this mistake is so grave that it would require his resignation.

Naturally, all hell broke loose, especially when PM Borut Pahor said it is for Golobič to decide what to do next, but added that he will wait only until the end of next week. This translates as “I’d have your head for this, but I can’t because you’re the president of a coalition party so I sure hope you resign by yourself“. Pahor’s reaction puts an interesting angle on the whole business, as it was uncharasteristically swift and decisive, the very adjectives we’ve come not to expect from Pahor.

But first, let’s take a look at Golobič’s actions. This Ultra affair made him uncharateristically edgy. When state television aired its first piece on the issue and made a claim about him giving a helping hand in the company getting 21 mil in unsecured loans, he came on really hard, stating outright that the journalist and his editor published politically motivated lies in a manner which would make Janša’s SDS proud. Additionally, he accused them of denying him the opportunity to respond by deliberately sending him questions late in the afternoon, knowing that he will be attending a public ceremony and will not be able to respond until the piece was published.

To Golobič’s credit, the piece indeed featured the famous “minister was unavailable for comment“, but what bothers me is the manner in which he responded. OK, so the piece was indeed based on false information, argumentative and biased. It was a classic example of agitprop journalism which was always present in Slovenia but which especially flourished under Janša’s government. But Golobič was neither the first nor the last person to find himself on the wrong end of a semi-competent journalistic stick. And whatever the motives of this journalist and/or his editor, Golobič should have responded more calmly. If the journalist and his editor got a bit too eager in creating this piece, at least Golobič should have held his composure. But I guess it came too close for comfort. On the other hand, I’m happy to see that Ultra plans lawsuits against those who knowingly spread false information about its loans. There is nothing worse in the business world than an undeserved bad rep.

While we’re on the issue: Almost three years ago, during an election campaign this journalist and pengovsky worked side by side covering the 2006 municipal elections and I found him to be generally competent and on the whole a rather likable guy, so I’m at a loss to explain such pieces (it’s not the first time he authored a piece like this).

Anyways – once it became obvious to Golobič that shit will hit the fan one way or the other, he did the right thing and made a full disclosure and apologized. I do feel, however, that he is needlesly nitpicking over whether “witholding information” is the same as “lying”. Even if he may be right on this point (although I’m far from sure that he is right), he is losing energy over a rather trivial question. Bottom line is that he fucked up. Not because he did anything illegal, but because he failed to meet his own standards.

Having said that, it not unimportant to put the entire affair in a political context. While Golobič’s initial reaction was that SDS is behind the whole thing, it seems more probable that we are witnessing an inter-coalition backlash. An attempt to make Golobič toe the line, if you will. By employing his superior political skill, Golobič made sure Zares’s power in Pahor’s government grew disproportionally to other coalition partners. This made a lot of people unhappy, especially LDS who were oh-so-fucking-close-to-heaven only to come crashing down, aided an abetted in that painful excersise by Golobič and Zares, who pointed out bad practices in appointing people to powerful positions, rather than turning a friedly blind eye to them.

Even PM Pahor probably has a vested interest in seeing Golobič humiliated. It all began even before the goverment was formed, when Golobič forced Pahor to trasfer the ministry of culture to Zares quota by threatning to quit the coalition. Pahor caved in and had to go back on a word he gave to an earmarked candidate. Secondly, there was the ire Pahor got from Zares for his failed experiment with former foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel and some other coalition clashes and you can see that Pahor is not the one to rush to Golobič’s rescue right now.

And finally, there’s the plan to transfer the Directorate for Electronic comunications from under minisitry of economy (headed by Zares’ Matej Lahovnik) to Golobič’s ministry. The idea was immediately opposed by some in Pahor’s Social Democrats, even though (or precisely because) it would put an important directorate where it belongs.Namely, this particular directorate deals -among other things – in radio frequences. Not just FM radio (like the one The Firm™ never got), but mobile telephony, wi-fi and stuff. It also deals with regulating ISP-related stuff and is generally the place to form what we may collectively call “digital policies”. It makes perfect sense to have such a department within an R&D ministry, rather than within a ministry which only looked at these things from a market-regulation point of view and did it badly at that. I’m not saying that Golobič’s ministry would do an inherently better job, but I’m sure a lot of people would lose a lot of leverage in media and IT industry if the switch had happened.

But there you go. The empire struck back and Golobič was proven to be fallible. However, if Borut Pahor wants to keep on truckin’ as PM, he will probably be ill-advised to apply principles in case of Gregor Golobič, after he failed to do so in the case of Dimitrij Rupel and Draško Veselinović. Golobič can always leave the coalition and prompt a fall of Pahor’s government, for there’s always a nice and engaging job waiting for him in Ultra. He even registered as a holder of at least one patent.