Category: Slovenia

Contrary to expectations, The Prez did not nominate a candidate for PM yesterday. He is widely expected to nominate Borut Pahor as leaders of all parilamentary groups (save Janez Janša‘s SDS) stated that they will vote in favour of Pahor’s premiership. But President Danilo Türk said yesterday that he needs a tete-a-tete with Pavle Gantar the newly minted President of the Parliament, hoping that the parliamentary committees will have comenced work when he nominates his man. Türk said that he expects to make that move early next week.

Waddayouknow! It’s The Prez 🙂

Why the delay? Türk said that he would like to coordinate with Gantar to have parliamentary committees and bodies up-and-running by the time the MPs vote on Türk’s nominee.

Which is a load of bollocks.

Contrary to his subsequent cabinet nominees, the PM nominee is not vetted by parliamentary bodies. Instead, he or she outlines his or her policies, if they choose so, parliamentary groups explain whether they support the nominee, after which a secret ballot is held, where the nominee must win an absolute majority of 46 votes. Period.

So, why is The Prez snowing us with his need to confabulate with his stand-in? Probably because he is covering Borut Pahor’s ass for a day or two, buying him time to re-negotiate a specific paragraph of the coalition agreement. Namely – it transpired yesterday late in the afternoon, that DeSUS and the rest of The Quartet read the segment on pension reform differently (suprise, surprise!). So, they’ll be ironing out the details over the extended weekend as tommorow is a public holiday in Slovenia, while simultaneously go about deciding who gets which portfolio.

Rumours are plentifuly and speculation is rife in that departement. The question on everyone’s mind is which portfolios will leaders of The Quartet take for themselves. While Pahor is obviously going to be the PM and cannot take on a specific portfolio (unlike in the UK), Gregor Golobič, Karl Erjavec and Katarina Kresal remain a mystery. The latter is apparently eyeing the job of foreign minister (an out-and-out bad idea), Erjavec is playing the table hard and wants to be either foreign or interior minister, while some add civil service and judicial porfolios to his range of choices, whereas Gregor Golobič has consistently kept his mouth shut over his ministerial ambitions. The latest unconfirmed rumours put him in charge of ministry for higher education, science and technology. Which I think is a good idea and is hopefully true.

The Trio is now officially The Quartet. Social Democrats, Zares, LDS and DeSUS, members of the future ruling coalition have apparently reached a deal on the coalition agreement. While the actual text of the agreement is not yet public, it is known that the agreement will detail government policies in a wide range of fields, from media to workers’ participation in profit sharing and pensions.

The Quartet (photo: Matej Povše/Dnevnik)

Especially the latter were a bit of a hold up, as DeSUS – the pensioners’ party demanded an across-the-table increase in pensions, but later agreed on an inverse increase, where people with pensions lower than € 500 per month will receive two € 150 bonuses in 2009, while those with larger pensions will receive proportionally lower bonuses (the bigger the pension the smaller the bonus). At this stage it is not exactly known what consession have been granted to Zares and LDS, but off the top of my head I’d say Zares stuck to its guns especially in the field of media legislation, while LDS remains a mystery. It is clear that – as a the smallest party in the new coalition – it had very little leverage and I wouldn’t be surprised if it kept its chips off the table for the next round of coalition negotiations.

As a sidenote: having a particular interest in the area, I’d like to reiterate the “four-point-test“, later ammended to a “three-point-test” which would in my opinion show whether the new government is serious about media freedom:

a) Change the law on RTV Slovenia, radically lowering the number of politically appointed members of both boards (to a max of, say, 25%).
b) The Law on media should be ammended, re-introducing the clause forbidding media contentration.
c) Forbid operators of future digital radio and television networks from becoming content providers as well.

Be that as it may, The Quarter now moves into dangerous territory: deciding who exactly will get a particular portfolio. It seems that Karl Erjavec of DeSUS succeeded with his demand of getting a ministry more than LDS, while it is also almost a given that there are some portfolios the PM-apparent Borut Pahor has already earmarked for his party and already has a specific person in mind to run it.

There are fifteen ministries up for grabs and up to two ministries without portfolio. Each ministry has a state secretary (something like an underminister), wheras the PM can name four additional state secretaries to serve directly under him. There are also fourteen Government Offices, some more political than other (ranging from Office for European Affairs to Slovene Intelligence Agency). Some of these GOs can be elevated to the level of a ministry without porftoilo.

And although they’re supposed to be left to mind their own business, one can be pretty sure that horse trading in names will also include parliamentary committees, as a party, which will have felt disenfranchised by its influence in the government will probably be compensated by a larger influence in the parliament.

In any case, things can still get ugly, as it is inevitable that egoes are about to clash. PM-apparent Borut Pahor already passed one test by cajoling Karl Erjavec back to the negotiating table. Now he faces an even bigger test, when he has to actually divide the influence and rule the government.

Today The Prez will hold consultations with leaders of all parliamentary groups, after which he will formally nominate his candidate for Prime Minister. He is expected to nominate Borut Pahor later today in or tommorow morning at the latest.

If, however, you’re feeling lucky, you can go over to Dr. Filomena’s and try to guess the exact composition of Pahor’s government. How many ministers will the next government have? Who will get which portfolio? How many of them will each party have? Place a bet with dr. Fil and win a prize!

BTW: Sleeping with Pengovsky went online exactly two years ago.

As the Queen leaves Slovenia (in case you missed it, I did post a video of her visit to Prešeren square), coalition builiding takes the stage front and centre once again.

The two amigos (source)

In case you forgot all about it, you can bring yourself up to speed here, here and here (and if you call now, here as well. If lines are busy, call later, but do call).

According to various reports the text of coalition agreement is more or less agreed upon. Social Democrats, Liberal Democrats and Zares hit it off quite well and have settled their policy differences some days ago. And while the three parties have – publicly at least – postponed the question of who exactly will get which portfolio, Karl Erjavec of DeSUS stirred the pot quite a bit when he flat out demanded the position of defence minister (which he holds in in the outgoing government of Janez Janša as well).

However, in an unexpected show of cojones Borut Pahor categorically rejected his demand, bringing their meeting to an end after mere five minutes. Apparently, it went something like this

Pahor: “Welcome, Karl! Look, you can pick any portfoilo save defence.”
Erjavec: “No. I want to continue as minister of defence!”
Pahor: “No go.”
Erjavec: “OK, bye!”

How’s that for brevity of coalition negotaions, huh? 😀

After Bojan Šrot‘s SLS opted out of any potential coalition deals with The Trio, Erjavec (correctly) calculated that he is the only really viable option for Pahor to form a working coalition. However, he terribly overestimated his bargaining position. Keeping Erjavec as defence minister would heavily damage Pahor’s crediblity, as much of left bloc’s campaing was built on the Patria Affair and calls for Erjavec to step down as minister of defence. Furthermore, rumours have it that Pahor engaged in some underground diplomacy and found out that SLS could be persuaded to start negotiating were Janez Podobnik to keep his job as minister of enviroment.

If correct, this information was the carbon in Pahor’s balls of steel when he nixed Karl Erjavec. But it was still a big gamble. SLS could go either way, leaving Pahor out in the cold with his pants down. But the bulj of the work was done by DeSUS’s MPs, who went apeshit when Erjavec walked out of the meeting with Pahor. Since they are the seven votes Erjavec is bargaining with, they raised their voice and after a weekend of arm twisting Erjavec caved in. Officially, he was applauded for taking a tough line against Pahor, raising the ante, but there was a lot of barely veiled criticsm by MPs – of which only two are actually party members. Which was something Erjavec has to consider when he tries to impose party discipline.

In any case, if all the junior coalition parties (Zares, DeSUS and LDS) confim the text of the coalition agreement, then the policies of the new government are set. And Pahor is off to do some heavy-duty human resource managing…

They say one chooses one’s friends and one’s enemies. But family – that’s in the stars. Most of us lead fairly normal lives. We go to work, go out, have a drink, get laid – that sort of thing – without getting interrupted. Even if people hold public office, they vacate it sooner or later and can go about their usual lives.

Queen Elizabeth II while inspecting the guard of honour (photo: Boštjan Tacol/Žurnal24)

But if you happen to be born into royality, you’re fucked. Yes the fancy dresses. Yes the royal weddings. Yes the lineages that go all the way back to King Alfred or Charlemagne. But having to rule the country every day since the day you ascend the throne until the day you either croak or abdicate, kind of sucks. And it’s not as if you really have a choice. I mean, you could take a pass, but it is not really what you were brought up for, is it? And so you are – through no fault of your own other than being borin into a specific family – expected to be on top of things daily (Sundays included), receive dignitaries, tour the country, attend receptions and ceremonies, represent the monarchy and be stately basically 24/7. And you have to do it for the rest of your life

If you, however, happen to be a notch or two down the line of ascendacy – or are only married to member of a royal family – then you’re screwed for life. What do you do when you’re second (or twenty-second) in line for the throne? You still can’t take a leak without protocol, but you’ll never amout to anything much and at the end of it there will be precious little you’ll be able to show for yourself. At least compared to the head of the family.

So despite my republican persuasion I have the utmost respect for members of royal families. Especialy the Winsdors. I wouldn’t trade places with them for all the farms in Cuba and I think Queen Elizabeth rocks. Think about it. She has had her weekly conferences with eleven Prime Ministers. From Winston Churchill to Gordon Brown. She ruled the UK since John and Paul were still The Quarrymen, she resisted the charms of Mick The Lick and survived the onslaught of Sid Vicious. And I’m sure that – were they sill on this Earth – John Lennon and Sic Vicious would have joined Sir Mick and Sir Paul in the ranks of nobility. And apparently Margharet Thatcher once remarked that the Queen is the sort of person who would probably vote for social democrats.

The Queen is a cool leader indeed.

P.S.: Hopefully I’ll be able to post a video later in the day.
Finally! Here is the video of the Queen touring Ljubljana Prešeren square, acompanied by President Türk and Mayor Janković

Queen Elizabeth Tours Ljubljana from pengovsky on Vimeo.

I know it’s a bit late, but – better late than never! 🙂

As Slovenia is getting ready to welcome Queen Elisabeth II, some people in the outgoing government are apparently taking the election result really hard.

Rupel’s public letter to The Prez (source)

First, there is the little issue of Ljubljana Central Market, which Ljubljana mayor Janković wants renovated (adding an additional brige and an underground parking garage). The trick is that this one of several areas of the city declared as a historical and cultural heritage and is as such under special protection of either the municipality or the state. Janković’s plans caused an uproar with numerous Ljubljanchans, who have formed a citizen’s initiative, staged rallies and organised round tables. In any case, they’ve been up against Janković for the better part of his term so far, voicing their opinion loud and clear and yet the outgoing Minister of Culture Vasko Simoniti has found it necesary to issue an order protecting the Central Market, efectively stopping plans to renovate three weeks after his party lost the elections. I mean, tehcnically his ruling has legal merit, but the in this and similar cases the minsiter has the right of discretion and could have ordered the protection any time in the last year-and-a-half. But no. He had to do it now. Just to be a nuissance.

Second, the outgoing Prime-Minister Janez Janša has gotten law-suit-happy. Not only has he filed a suit agaist Magnus Berglund, a reporter with Finnish YLE and author of a programme claiming Janša took a € 20 milion bribe in the Patria affair, against CEO of Sistemska Tehnika Milan Švajger and fomer advisor to the President Bojan Potočnik. This select trio of defendants is now joined by Drago Kos, head of the Anti-Corruption Office of Slovenia who also appeared on the programme, but did not make any direct charges against Janša, although – truth be said – he did make a couple of indirect ones. It looks as if Janša in watching the programme over and over again, constantly finding more and more proof that it was a conspiracy. There is a word for that.

Third, The No-Longer-Eternal Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel apparently really really wants that ambassador’s job in Vienna. And he takes it personally as well. Had he not, he would have probably found the taste and demenaor not to write a public letter to President Danilo Türk (Slovene only), urging him to expedite the process of nominations of new ambassadors, because “the current situation could damage Slovenia’s reputation in the international community” and (earlier in the letter) that “the current global economic situation, recent export of scandalous manupulations to Finland and their subsequent import back to Slovenia, use of international connections to discredit political opponents in Slovenia, all of this suggests a need for a concerted and organised diplomatic presence of Slovene diplomacy in the international arena“… And so on ad nauseam. And although Rupel denies that this letter is about his tenure in Vienna, it is obvious that is precisely about that. He seemingly finds it hard that someone would question his wishes and ambitions, even though it was he as a minister who nominated himself as an ambassador to Austria. There is a word to describe that as well.

BTW: The Prez refused to comment on Rupel’s letter, calling it inappropriate and indecent. There you go.

P.S.: Sorry for late posting. You know… Things to see and people to do…

The new parliament begun its work yesterday, electing its president (Pavel Gantar) and three vice-presidents (Miran Potrč of SD, Vasja Klavora of DeSUS and France Cukjati of now-oppostition SDS), meaning that the legislative brach in now fully empowered – if not yet fully functional. MPs still have to vote on members and leadership of various bodies and committees.

Vasja Klavora, Miran Potrč, Pavel Gantar and France Cukjati (source)

With new parliament conveened, the government of Janez Janša is now functioning in caretaker capacity only. Broady speaking, this means that it cannot (including but not limited to) propose legislation, nominate and/or appoint civil servants or engage in foreign policy initiatives. And – perhaps somewhat suprisingly – this is the field where the PM apparent Borut Pahor will have his hands full trying to find a viable compromise.

For starters – rumours of Dimitrij Rupel aiming to become ambassador to Austria have now been confirmed, as the outgoing government nominated Rupel for that particular post on Tuesday (less than 24 hours before assuming its caretaker role). The nomination received mixed reactions. Leader of Zares Gregor Golobič and his coutnerpart in LDS Katarina Kresal reacted negatively, while Borut Pahor did not take issue with the nomination, saying that – if anyone – than a foreign minister is equipped to be an ambassador.

Perhaps. But this might again be an example of Pahor over-eagerly trying to avoid a public confrontation, although Slovenia has been without its top representative in Vienna since April, when Ambassador Ernest Petrič was sworn in as a Judge of the Constitutional Court. A lot of eyebrows were raised as the Foreing Ministry failed to produce a candidate for the job, but now it is clear (as many have speculated) that Rupel way eyeing the job and kept the post to himself. Which is fucking poor taste and yet another example of the outgoing government treating the state and its institutions as its own property. By not opposing Rupel’s departure to Vienna, Borut Pahor is quite possibly trying to be “generous in victory” and prevent any kind of gloating, but he just may be taking it too far. Namely – Slovene minority’s rights in Austria (specifically, in Haiderland) are still being trampled and one cannot afford to name an ambassador to Vienna, just because this particular person is infatuated with Ursula Plassnik. Not to mention the fact that where Rupel walks grass don’t grow again. Hopefully The Prez will exert his powers fully and will not sign Rupel’s nomination. Just to make a point.

However, with Rupel out of the picture one way or the other, an interesting question of succession ensued. Many have eyed this prestigious post, but Borut Pahor is apparently looking at it from many points of view simultaneously:

First, there is his statement that the coalition negotiations will have ended by Sunday evening. Including ministerial nominations. That puts a time frame on the decision making process as well as limiting new PM’s options. Secondly , despite promises of “experience before party membership card” in the nomination process, Borut Pahor have to find at least three ministerial posts (out of presumed seventeen) to be filled by leaders of the coalition parties. And thirdly – unlike Janša, who had zero foreign policy experience and considered it Rupel’s turf, leaving the latter alone to stir shit up – Borut Pahor is likely to keep a close eye on foreign policy.

So, who will succeed Dimitrij Rupel? Rumours have it that Katarina Kresal is eyeing the job. If she were to be given the portfolio, she and her party just might be satisfied enough to swallow Karel Erjavec’s DeSUS getting a portfolio more than LDS. But Katarina Kresal as Foreign Minster is an extremely bad idea. I mean, she might be able to charm the so-called diplomatic parquet, but really… Being sexy and intelligent is not enough. Foreign minister should be a seasoned politician with ample experience both at home and abroad. He or she should be intimately familiar with the history of nation’s foreign policy, decision-making process in the EU and UN, should know the details of bilateral issues this country has with countries around the world and should know (i.e.: have a ready-to-implement plan) what he or she wants to achieve as a foreign minister.

Katarina Kresal simply does not fit the description. If nothing else, she lack the mileage. In my opinion she would fare much better as Minister of Internal Affairs, not in the least because she would directly oversee all the human-rights issues that have plagued the outgoing government (and governments before it), most notably “The Erased” and the Roma issues. Alternatively, she could be named Minister of Justice and work on reducing court delays, another notorious human rights issue this country has. In any case, since LDS is big on human rights (that is not to say other parties of coalition aren’t, but LDS made it one of focal points of its campaign) I’m convinced Katarina Kresal should be given one of these portfolios.

Gregor Golobič has other problems. He was my personal favourite for the post of President of Parliament, but as we saw that was not to be. Golobič even said that those particulr shoes are just too big for him, since he was last an MP 16 years ago. Apparently he was considered as an FM several times in the past few weeks. Does he fit the description above? Yes and no. He does have plenty of experience at home, even if he was working in the background until he emerged as leader of Zares. His foreign policy experience is scarse (although it is possible that I don’t have all the relevant information), but having worked with Janez Drnovšek, I’m sure Golobič picked up a trick or two. However, he does not strike me as someone who would unnecesarily mince words and enjoy the watered-down positions of the EU just because Poland had a problem with a EU policy (a hypothtical example. of course). Furthermore, since Pahor is likely to keep his fingers in the foreign policy cookie jar, I kind of doubt it that Golobič whould have any of it.

Golobič with his experience in working behind the scenes and academic and professional background (he majored in philosophy and is/was closely connected to a hyper-high-tech firm Ultra) is somewhat off the scale of Slovene politics. Now that leading the parliament is off the table, Golobič should be perhaps tasked with combining the academic, economic and R&D resources this country has. This would also give him a lot of manouvering space politically, as this portfolio would have breath, but not so much depth. This portfolio is not to be mistaken for what was known as Ministry of Reforms, which coordinated finance, economy and social portfolios, a task which will apparenty fall on the shoulders of former Governor of Central Bank, Mitja Gaspari.

So – who should be the next foreign minister? For what is worth, I’d very much like to see Ivo Vajgl take the post. He has the diplomatic experience, serving on various diplomatic posts and has already served as FM for a couple of months in 2004 when then-PM Tone Rop dismissed Dimitrij Rupel, but then lost the elections. During those three months Vajgl presented a wonderful concept of cultural foreign policy, as in actively promoting Slovenia and its foreign policy priorities through its rich cultural exchange. When the renowned conductor Carlos Kleiber died and was burried in Slovenia next to his late wife, a beautiful cultural hommagge was paid, with Ricardo Mutti of Milan Scala conducting Slovene Philharmonics in his honour. However, there was little or no foreign policy support or follow-up, and Vajgl wanted to change that approach. Hopefully, he will be given his true chance now.

But hey – it’s not me who is trying to form a government 😉