Category: Slovenia

Opposition SDS had a post-election convention Saturday last where the former PM was (not unexpectedly) re-elected as party chairman. What was somewhat surprising was the force with which he went after the current government, although it must be said that Janez Janša seems much more comfortable in the role of opposition leader. But it could be that pengovsky is just used to seeing him in that particular role.

Janša probably didn’t get the message. A marvellous photo by Luka Cjuha/Dnevnik (source)

In his acceptance speech (Slovene only) Janša denounced the way this government was tackling the crisis and called for “The Second Republic” by proposin a set of radical constitutional reforms which are suppose to streamline development and turn the economic tide. Janša called for

-reform of the judiciary (abolition of indefinite tenure of a judge)
-making a referendum decision revocable only by another referendum
-streamlining the formation and increasing efficiency of the government (executive branch)
-allowing early elections
-implementing regions under penalty of dissolution of parliament
-reforming the National Council into Council of regions
-introducing compulsory high school
-prohibiting glorification of all totalitarian regimes
-amending Article 39 of the Constitution (freedom of speech) by prohibiting media monopolies
-introducing environment protection as a constitutional category

You will notice that not a single proposal deals with the crisis. Not one. Rather than an honest attempt at helping out this is rather yet another short-cut to power Janša is trying to take. In this case the short-cut means nothing less than disturbing the entire system of checks and balances, which is something Janša has always had a problem with. Even while he was in power he considered the judiciary branch as a “bastion of commie filth”. Indeed there are problems with Slovenian courts, manifested mostly in the form of horrible delays (it will usually take you from three to five years to get a final verdict on anything). But this has precious little to do with the economic crisis. Janša’s problem with Slovenian judiciary is not its inefficiency, but rather its independence and the latter is very much founded in the permanent tenure of the judges. Granted, the permanent tenure has its drawback, but if judges were up for re-election every (say) five-or-so years, you can bet your ass they would be much more inclined to decide in favour of those who decide on whether they keep their job. Because if a judge would play ball, the coalution could simply have its MPs not extend the term of this particular judge.

This goes hand in hand with streamlining the formation of the government and increasing its efficiency. This is of course just a euphemism for increasing competences of the government, naturally at the expense of the parliament. While the formation of the government in Slovenia really is a complicated three-step procedure, it should not be abandoned just because Janša said so. As things stand now, a government – once formed – can almost always count on its majority in the parliament to rubber-stamp its decisions. It is the fragility or sturdiness of the coalition (rather than the government formation process) which decides on how much power the parliament and the MPs will have. Furthermore – Janša proposed that the parliament could only recall an entire government and not individual ministers (as it can do now) and even that the PM could choose his ministers without the parliament vetting them. This is a great tool to play your coalition partners one against another and would actually breed even more governmental inefficiency as no coalition will bring its own government down just to change a minister, whereas there would be no parliamentary control of who gets to be a minister.

And finally, there’s the call to enable early elections, which thoroughly weakens the parliament and infinitely strengthens the government. Because if elections would be called every time a political impasse would be reached, Slovenia would suddenly be ruled by a string of caretaker governments without any parliamentary control whatsoever. Moreover, as historians of the Weimar Republic will tell you, constant elections will ultimately weaken the parliament and the whole democratic process, paving the way for a more autocratic leader.

And to hasten the process, Janša proposes the parliament has another go at the legislation on regions (the very issue where Janša failed spectacularly) or face dissolution. As there is no way in hell regional legislation in its present form would pass, the whole process of early elections and caretaker governments would be jump-started, preferably with Janša already in power.

Then we have Janša peddling with Article 39 of the constitution. The sheer stupidity of having the article include anti-media-monopoly provision is beyond description. A monopoly is a monopoly, be it in media or otherwise. A monopoly is by definition related to ownership and market share rather and there are institutions to fight that already in place, (in)effective as they may be. There is absolutely no reason to start fooling around with the Constitution because of that, much less with the article which guarantees freedom of speech. Because one you open that article up for debate, you can be sure that someone (maybe even JJ himself) will have a really bright idea about curbing this freedom “just a little” so it would suit their political needs.

Which brings us to our final point – Janša’s idea to have the Constitution ban glorification of all totalitarian regimes and their symbols. Which a) immediately puts anyone who doesn’t think Tito a complete and utter criminal on the wrong side of the law b) criminalises any and all Partisan paraphernalia from WWII and c) equals resistance and collaboration during WWII, making both of them “equally bad”, which is nothing less than a complete revision of history.

Which makes Janša’s second republic sound a whole lot like a proto-fascist regime. Only that this time around he’d have the Constitution to cover his ass. However, in every cloud there’s a silver lining. And in this case it is the fact that Janez Janša and his SDS finally recognised the fact that there is an economic crisis.

You will no doubt remember how as late as Summer 2008 Janša cited incredible economic results his government supposedly had and denounced everyone who warned against the crisis as being scare-mongers trying to rain on his parade. He also acknowledges the fact that this county is seriously indebted which makes the crisis all the more worse. But he fails to note that it was his expansionary economic policies which prompted an increase in loan-taking and thus overheating the economy. But hey, you can’t expect him to understand everything in one go. Because he also seems to understand that there is a lot of media concentration in Slovenia, but he fails to add that he helped create one of the largest media barons and failed to bust all other media concentrations which were formed under previous governments.

Janša said that Slovenia can be government better. It sure can. It’s just that he’s is not it. Not after only six months since he was ousted as PM. True, pengovsky may be more accustomed to Janez Janša as leader of the opposition, but the man himself seems to be suffering from a serious case of withdrawal symptoms.

This might be of importance to all of you who were irked by the new vignette system for charging road tolls in Slovenia. As you will remember, the government of former PM Janez Janša introduced the system om 1 July 2008 amid cries of the move being politically motivated as elections were fast approaching and the goverment had promised to do something about ridiculously long queues at toll-booths on Slovenian highways during the summer tourist season. The introduction of vignette was partly overshadowed by the Šentvid Tunnel Fiasco, but the gist of the move was the introduction of 12-months vignette (priced at €55), intended for those who use Slovenian roads regularly and 6-months vignettes (priced at €35) for everyone else, including tourists who will only pass through Slovenia driving to and from their destinations.

(source)

Naturally, a lot of people went apeshit. I mean, making people cough up 30 euros to use Slovenian roads twice in a year (going to and from a hotel in Croatia, for example) gives an entirely new meaning to the term highway robbery. The move did not go unnoticed in Brussels where the European Commission first asked nicely if Janša’s government could change the system into a more friendly one, but JJ and his minister of transportation Radovan Žerjav played dumb and said that there is still plenty of time to consider any changes.

Elections came, Janša lost and Patrick Vlačič, a protegee of the new PM Borut Pahor was installed as new minister of transportation. Somewhat surprisingly, he started playing dumb as well, saying that Slovenia will let itself first be dragged in front of the European Court, as to buy some time before changing the system. Nameyl, the trick is that introducing shorter-period vignettes means that less money will trickle into coffers of DARS (the state motorway company), probably forcing the government to back up loans taken by DARS with taxpayers’ money.

However, since an over-indebted DARS is not really the Commission’s problem, the muscles in Brussels told Slovenia that it will hold back on funds for completing the country’s highway system. Thus minister Patrick Vlačič announced, removing his foot from his mouth, that 6-months vignettes will be scrapped and 30- and 7-days vignettes will be introduced instead, The latter will be priced at 15 euros. priced at €35 and €15 respectively. Government of PM Pahor approved the new measure today and the parliament is expected to pass the changed law in an emergency session to speed up the process.

Whereas the rest of us, who use the yearly vignette, will now have to pay 95 euros for this luxury.

We are to believe that this swine flu will kill us all. We are to believe that migrant workers will take our jobs. We are to believe that a mosque will become a terrorist recruitment centre. We are to believe that we, people who earn money and create added value should pay for irresponsible behaviour of those who lived off the interest and other people’s money, otherwise we will all perish. In short, we are to believe and to be afraid.

As some of you know, right-wing and neo-Nazi groups scheduled an anti-mosque demonstration which was to take place on Monday, 27 April. The date was carefully chosen as they wanted to depict Muslims as the new occupators. As a reaction, a number of centre-to-left wing organisation organised a counter-rally, which aimed to confront the rise of neo-Nazism in Slovenia. Pengovsky was there in his professional capacity and had a look around.

This was not your usual anti-globalisation rally. People from around the world came to protest the fact that Fascism is again becoming a viable option, even though Europe (and especially this part of the world) took the full brunt of this silly little ideology which somehow seemed appealing to a disillusioned people. However, according to dr. Rastko Močnik, Fascism today is not the same as in 1930s. He said that what we are witnessing today is actually post-Fascism (a term coined by Tonči Kuzmanić), which on the surface dithced is romantic, Hitleresque ideas of racial superiority and seems to accept the concept of human rights. On the operational level, however, it still resorts to the same ideas and principles than it did eighty years ago.

In the end neo-Nazis didn’t even stage a rally. Offically it was rescheduled “until further notice” due to the fact that they did not get a permit. According to my information, however, they didn’t even apply for it, which shows that they are a bunch of big-mouthed inept bozos. Pengovsky already warned against stupid people in large groups. On Monday Aleš Gulič, former MP echoed that, saying that “in 1920’s no one took those clowns seriously and as a result we had to start from scratch in 1945”

However, the rise of Fascism today is connected to one other phenomenon. The Culture of Fear.

Did you notice that all of the sudden economic crisis is no longer top issue? Turn to any news channel and you’ll see a 24/7 live reporting on swine flu. The fact that so far it killed less people than your average flu does every year is not important. What is important is what it could do. The fact that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction was not important. What was important was that it could have had them. It is also very important that certain corporations make a lot of money in such cases.

Fear keeps people docile and looking for leadership. Fear makes people forget that their governments are accountable to them (and not the other way around). Fear keeps people apart from one another, because in the final analysis everyone is a potential threat to everyone else. Fear destroys two-way communication and creates a one-way highway for propaganda. Fear is an ideal tool for governments to divert attention from their ineptitude and lack of ideas. It is, however, also an ideal breeding ground for Fascism.

And the worst thing is that those who use and create this culture of fear probably don’t do that with malice. I don’t believe there is a dark, smoke-filled room somewhere, where a bunch of sinister-looking people with dark glasses manipulate the society. There is, rather, a reactionary reflex within all of us, aimed at protecting our position within the society. In short, they promise a return to business as usual. But challenges of today are – this must be said – a tall order for anyone who dares to tackle them, the authority of those in charge is being questioned. But rather than answering those questions, short cuts are being taken. Ways to eschew difficult questions. Decoys. Manoeuvres which give those in charge time to breathe. But it is a vicious cycle. Pauses between challenges are ever more rare and ever shorter. And soon a society will find itself plunging from crisis to crisis.

And then a leader will appear, who will claim to have all the answers. And everyone will believe him.

Weeks ago I wrote about the fate of Igor Bavčar’s Istrabenz and hinted at Laško Brewery of Boško Šrot going south as well. Apparently this is starting to happen as Infond Holding, one of the companies in a chain of ownership which allows Boško Šrot to dominate Laško, has had its credit line extended to allow it to continue repaying the debt. The thing is that the bank which extended the credit line is none other than Nova Ljubljanska banka (NLB), whose new CEO Draško Veselinovič caused some people to go apeshit when he was appointed.

Vlačič (SD), Erjavec (DeSUS), Golobič (Zares) and Sajovic (LDS) in Sunday’s debate on POP TV (photo: Tomaž Skale/Dnevnik)

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Ever since 17 April events followed at lightning speed. As Veselinovič approved extension of the credit line, both he and Boško Šrot of Laško found themselves at the receiving end of some particularly harsh criticism. At first Minister of Economy Matej Lahovnik floated the idea of Zares quitting the government as it is apparently incapable of stemming “tycoon loans”. This immediately opened fault-lines in several directions:

Various members of the government, including PM Pahor and Minister of interior Katarina Kresal took the position that what NLB did was bad, but that it was ultimately the bank’s call. This was, however, enough for Laško Brewery to claim that a witch-hunt aimed at bringing Delo and Večer dailies under government control.

The thinly veiled threat to quit the government irked PM Pahor just enough to send in his newly-minted second-in-command Patrick Vlačič (who in his spare time doubles as minister of transport) and have him say that if the coalition falls apart, early elections will be called (presumably with disastrous results for the quartet).

Zares’ swipe at NLB and its CEO Draško Veselinović rattled the cage at LDS as well, as party president Katarina Kresal snapped back at Gregor Golobič saying that the government musn’t direct the bank’s decisions and added that “it’s time for boys to stop fooling around and get back to work”.

Given the fact that she is one of the people with least political mileage in this government, her statement borders was audacious to say the least. But it apparently stoke a chord with Lahovnik, who said that it’s funny that calls to prevent government intervention come from “the lady who had her candidate for MP installed as CEO of Nova Ljubljanska banka”.

When things seemingly reached a boiling point, Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković appeared from nowhere and called upon leaders of the coalition to get their act together.

Somewhere in between, however, Draško Veselinovič felt too much heat under his feet and offered his resignation to NLB’s supervisory board. Unconfirmed rumours have it that he is not good at handling stressful situations, but this was a relatively shrewd move. He didn’t resign, but did offer to, maintaining all along that he did nothing wrong. In effect, he was bluffing.

But – to put in poker terms – minister of economy Lahovnik “saw his resignation and raised him a Friday”, saying that he is considering resigning from the post himself, among other things (but not limited to) because NLB extended the credit line to Laško, which “shows a fundamental difference in values”. Lahovnik said that he will decide on his resignation by Friday (tomorrow) when NLB’s supervisory board was to debate Veselinovič’s fate. However, after Lahovnik made his announcement, NLB’s board canceled its Friday meeting with a new date to be announced.

And to top it all, Janez Janša didn’t want to be late for the party and said that the country is being held hostage by the coalition which is too self-involved to notice that the country is headed for a crisis and forecasted that this will lead to unemployment rising to 150,000 people (out of some 950,000-strong labour force), as well as increase of public debt from 28% to 50% of GDP.

Janša’s remarks of course drew direct fire from Zares top dog Gregor Golobič who said that the whole tycoon-saga started with Janša and that it was Janša’s thirst for media control which set this complicated chain of events in motion in 2005.

Karl Erjavec of DeSUS predictably says that the whole thing is not fair to pensioners.

WHAT TO MAKE OF IT?

Funny things is that most of the above statements (with possible exceptions of Janša and Erjavec) are more or less true.

The government is trying to influence both newspapers by undermining Laško. However, Laško did get its credit line extended after coalition parties said that this will not be happening, which smells badly of pre-election debts being repaid. Furthermore, Draško Veselinovič was appointed CEO of NLB as a reward for LDS not being too problematic during coalition negotiation. If coalition falls appart, early elections probably are the only solution, as PM Pahor would probably have a tough time selling a coalition with Janša to his MPs. Zares is slipping in polls and needs some good copy, stat. And yes, there is a general feeling that we’re looking at boys (and a girl) with toys rather then responsible individuals running the country.

On the other hand, the whole thing has little to do with pensioners, which puts Erjavec’s comments firmly in the AW category, whereas Janša’s statements are pure manipulation. Namely, as the crisis deepens the unemployment will rise to at least 150,000 people and as more and more cash will be needed to alleviate effects of the economic meltdown, we will be lucky if public debt will reach only 50% of GDP – which, by the way, will still be well within the Maastricht criteria.

IS THIS GOVERNMENT BIG ENOUGH FOR ALL OF THEM?

Yes. The only way for this coalition to crumble is if they take things too far. So far, everyone is leaving everyone else more than enough room to back down without losing face. What we are witnessing is in fact an intricate form or communication. Of course coalition leaders are parleying in private. But at the same time they are sending public signals to each other, where what is said matters just as much as who said it and how it was said.

So when Lahovnik talked about Zares leaving the government, it was actually Golobič talking to Pahor that he should be careful at how he will play the NLB/Laško thing. Pahor responded in kind, having Vlačič say that in this case early elections are possible, which meant that Pahor knows what is at stake and that Golobič shouldn’t get any funny ideas about different coalitions, because if they go down, they will go down together.

Katarina Kresal got the message as well and since she is the only member of the coalition who is fully replacable, she knew that she would be laughed at if she talked about leaving the coalition and instead through her “a little less conversation a little more action please” message said that she will not give up Veselinovič and NLB easily and that Golobič can go suck a lemon, thank you very much.

Golobič, however, did get what he wanted. The government will apparently take tougher stand against “tycoon-loans” and will take a more active role in managing the companies it owns. At the same time Golobič managed to put a daylight between Zares and Laško getting its credit line extended. And finally, with Janković (who is close, but not too close to Zares) appealing for calm, Golobič showed Pahor that there are other candidates for his job.

So, in the end, the whole thing turns out to be just a busy day at work. Unless of course, someone fumbles it. The coalition is not rock solid and all it takes is a short series of bad moves fuelled with pride and arrogance and the show could come to a premature end.

Shit is brewing this side of the Alps. Weeks ago pengovsky wrote about a group of neo-Nazi wannabes who wanted to call a referendum on Croatian NATO entry, citing Croatian occupation of sacred Slovene soil. The bid failed spectacularely, but during a particularly daft exchange with Blaž Babič, one of the proponents of the referendum, it emerged that hooded and skin-headed youth were members of Hervardi, a supposedly patriotic organisation with a clear superiority agenda.

Skinhead kids attacking a cameraman at the Faculty of Philosophy. (Source: 24ur.com)

Days ago, however, students of Faculty of Philosophy held a round table discussion on rise of hate-speech, nationalism and neo-fascism in Slovenia. Present among the public was also a group of skin-headed kids whose aim obviously was to stir up shit. They claimed that they’re not neo-Nazis but rather a group of patriotic national socialists (imagine!). However, they got really nervous when cameras were turned on and swiftly vacated the premises, but not before attacking the cameraman.

This, however, appears only to have been a prelude to a real outburst of nationalistic, religious and racial hatred which is scheduled for 27 April. Exactly two weeks from now a rally against building a mosque in Ljubljana will apparently be held in downtown Ljubljana. Choice of date is not coincidental. 27 April marks the start of uprising against Nazi occupation of Slovenia during World War II. Hervardi group, whose president is doing time for attempted murder, called the rally on that particular date to point out the “true occupators” and to revive the “true meaning of 27 April”.

Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth. 27 April tells a story about how a group of few good men knew what is right and what is wrong and fought for their ideals of a free nation with a better future against all odds. What Hervardi want to say today is that people of Islamic faith should not be allowed to worship their god, because they are occupators of Slovenia and are somehow inferior. Which basically constitutes a neo-Nazi agenda.

Personally, I expect the protest to fizzle out into a show of impotent rage, making the protesters an object of mockery. After all, as you can see from the linked video above, Slovenian neo-Nazis are a bunch of pussies, worried that their mothers will find out what they’re up to. They are also cowards for trying to hide their dirty deeds under a cloak of a well respected anniversary and even falsely claiming that The President supports them. And while their cowardice will expose them for spineless twats that they are, they will also have to worry about criminal charges which were filed by Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković for inflammatory speech used on the leaflets announcing the rally. Oh, an there is a counter-rally organised as well, aimed at preventing abuse of the anniversary and (by extention) in support of the mosque.

Pengovsky will always remember the story about how Slovenian Blood&Honour organisation applied for membership in Neo-Nazi International but got turned down on the grounds that Slavs are a lower race. But the real problem is not that Slovenian “patriotic” groups are a bunch of stupid pansies who mistook politics for a psychoanalyst’s couch. The problem is that they are slowly but surely becoming more and more visible with their rhetoric steadily becoming an integral part of mainstream politics.

One must never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.