Category: Sunday Special

8.66 %. That’s the official turnout on today’s referendum on regions according to the State Electoral Commission at the time of publishing this post. The polling stations had closed minutes ago, and it means that a little more than 145.000 people out of 1,6 million eligible had voted. Analyses and projections will be forthcoming in the next couple of hours and day. PM Janša is due to give a statement at 2100hrs, while Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković (the one who called for a boycott) will give a statement minutes from now.

As predicted, a battle for interpretation will start. PM Janša is scheduled to give a statement at 2100 by which time all the votes will probably have been counted. The extremely low turnout (lowest of any referendums held in Slovenia, where referendums are not attended in huge numbers anyhow) suggest that those who voted, did so in favour of regions.

Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković will give a statement minutes from now. As you may recall, he called for a boycott of the referendum. It will be interesting to see if he will be tempted to interpret turnout in Ljubljana (only 5.5%) as a massive following of his advice. The reality namely is that we had a criminally nice and warm Sunday probably payed a part in the fact that less than 6% of voters cast their vote in Ljubljana (the lowest turnout in the country). But the main factor dirivng the voters abstinence is probably the fact that the voters didn’t care a pair of fetid dingo’s kindeys about a muddled referendum question and a severe lack of a referendum campaign. To elucidate with a refference to specifics: While casting his vote, pengovsky was actually asked by a member of the on-site electoral commission what this referendum was actually about. Go figure.

Stay tuned, more info after 2200 hrs.

Many thanks to everyone for a very learned debate on Wedensday, most notably to the good doctor and St. Luka, while Aja deserves a special mention. ARF was correct, however – I was going somewhere with it. Not that it was a tough nut to crack 🙂

If you follow this blog long enough you’re bound to notice the following pattern: Almost regardless of the topic, the debate among Slovenes will end up at one of the following: Partisans/Collaboration, WWII in general, post-war killings & Goli otok, Comrade Tito & Communism. Or, more usually, an explosive mix of the four. The longer the debate, the more personal it gets and it usually engulfs even the coolest of heads, sudenlly creating two more or less disticnts camps and digging a seemingly impassable rift between the two.

“Defend Slovenia – Vote SLS” – 19th century patriotism at the turn of 21st century (source)

It is what we lately tend to call the cultural divide, or – more locally – the cultural clash. Not exactly conforming to Wikipedia definition, cultural clash is a recurring theme in Slovene society, the cultural divide seems to conform to Marxist statement of history repeating itself – first as a tragedy and then as a farce. The cultural divide has had many incarnations in Slovenia, the “original” one being that of a rift between “clericals” and “liberals” in late 19th and early 20th century, when Slovenian political landscape was being shaped. It is not just your usual clash between old and new, conservatives and liberals, traditionalists and avantguarde, small-mindedness and cosmopolitanism. It is all of these things, but there’s more. It is a clash between two different perceptions of “what is right”.

In today’s terms it is a clash between 19th and 21st century. On one hand we have the traditionalists, who believe that this country lacks identity and patriotism and – in general – think in terms of a nation-state, on the other hand we have the progressives which are quite content with relative lack of Blut-und-Boden patriotism in this country and acknowledge the fact that identity, ethnicity, nationhood and citizenhip do not necessarily correlate with each other.

Naturally, this extends into politics as well. While there are notable exceptions to the rule (especially the smaller parties tend to elude a simple definiton), the division between progressives and traditionalists increasingly follows the lines of political division between left and right. And as at the moment political right hold the upper hand in the balance of power, we can observe not only a tendency to defend the achieved status quo, but also a drive for restoration of a provincial 19th century mindset, which includes, but is not limited to building our traditions, being patriotic, saluting the flag (especially in schools), maintaining the old even at the expence of new and – above all – looking up to them (the traditionalists) for guidance on what is right. You can see it everywhere.

You can see in the way a noted right wing intelectual who discretist a particular theatre play not because it is bad as such, but because there is only one way to do this author’s plays.

You can see it way a prominent architect and a high ranking official in charge of cultural heritage who will not allow any changes to existing Ljubljana stadium – not because it is bad – but because it was renovated by Jože Plečnik in 1930s and you don’t touch Plečnik.

You can see it in the way a “culinary critic” spits fire and sulphur in a newly founded right wing magazine on an upscale restaurant in Ljubljana because there’s only one way to do a sea-bass.

You can see it in the way the Foreign Minister denounces those journalists who voice oppinions others than his own and rewrites history along the way.

You can see it in the way the Prime Minister takes appart media that do not report his version of the truth and ostricises them for voicing their concerns internationally rather than solving it at home.

You can see it in the way this government and its political satellites are deepening the border dispute with Croatia and are swearing on all that’s holy that they will never give up an inch of sacred Slovene land.

What you can observe here is a complete lack of dialogue. Traditionalists feel that no dialogue with progressives is necesary, since they are the chosen holders of Single Truth. Anything beyond this spectrum simply does not exist and the fact that some people (or groups of people) do voice dissenting oppinions, disqualifies these groups immediately. It is not a simple case of “my way or the highway”. It is a case of denying the very legitimacy of a possibly dissenting opinion.

And so – although they claim the opposite – the cultural clash is in fact caused by traditionalists, but fueled by the progressives, as the latter try (usually in vain) to open up a constructive dialogue with the former. Which is exactly what happened late 80’s when the Communist party was “the traditionalists” and almost everyone else was “the progressives” and despite the paintfully obvious fact that the progressives of the perios were offering different answers to paintful questions, the Party maintained that it is the sole holder of The One Truth, until it crumbled under the weight of its own nonsense.

And the very same thing is happening now. It’s just that a few of those who have tried to open up new fields of dialogue in late 80s are now more than content ignoring any other opinion but their own, therefore claiming that it is the other side which is engaing in cultural clash. And thus progressives become traditionalists once again. It’s just that these particular traditionalists have a reactionary agenda, revolutionary modus operandi and an inflamatory rhetoric.

Remember Joško Joras? A group of people organised into movement 25. Junij (June 25th) yesterday led what they called a peaceful march for a fair border between Slovenia and Croatia.

Janez Podobnik (left, 2004) and Marjan Podobnik (right, 2008) provoking at Slovene-Croatian border

In case you don’t know, the litlle fleck of land Joško Joras calls home is only accessible by a road between Slovenian and Croatian border checkpoints at Sečovlje border crossing. Even more, it is on the disputed piece of land, claimed by both Slovenia and Croatia. The latter enforced its claim by blocking the road with cement flower pots and today’s march was called under a pretext of removing these pots, following an order to do so by Piran District Court.

Now, you have to understand that since both countries claim sovereignity over this land, there is a regulat tug-of-war between various institutions. Croatinan district court in Buje thus orders the road to be closed, while Slovenian district court in Piran then rules that the closure is illegal and orders pots to be removed. And so it goes on forever. Croatians are – truth be told – slightly better in this enterprise, mostly because they have direct land access to Joras’s land and can therefore engage in a multitude of tricks, whereas Slovenian options are limited – neglecting the fact that Croatia really wants to achieve a fait accompli, whereas Slovenia opted not to hit below the belt and plays the long game.

Anyways. Morons of 25. Julij today wanted to (and I qoute) “enact the ruling of Piran Distric court” and remove those pots. Which is all fine and dandy, unless a) it is paintfully obvious that this is a very very lame excuse to try and provoke a border incident and b) that the law cannot be enforced by a mob.

Leader of 25. Julij is – you won’t really be surprised – Marjan Podobnik, brother of Janez Podobnik, minister of enviroment and former president of SLS. Now, Marjan himself was president of SLS in the second half of the 90s but he spectacularly fucked up and was sent to political oblivion. Or so we thought. Some six months ago he formed movement 25. junij (the date of Slovene independence) and it was immediately obvious that shit is about to hit the fan. Namely, the Podobnik Bros. have an unhealthy relationship with that particular piece of the border and Joško Joras. Four years ago, only days before the elections Janez Podobnik went “to visit” Joško Joras, tussled with the Coratian police and caused an international border incident. And yesterday, his brother Marjan gathered a mob of 200 people, went to remove those fucking pots, tussled with the croatian police and caused an international border incident. Am I the only one seeing a pattern here?

If you want to see the tussle, click here, scroll to the end of the article and press play.

The whole thing disgusts me and I think Podobnik (Marjan, this time around) deserves a proper bitch slapping. Creating an international incident to score cheap political points is crazy (oh, he maintains that the whole thing is apolitical. Yeah, and I’ll vote SDS in autumn). Abusing a member of your own party to do so (Joras) is despicable. And finally, claiming that the rule of law is at an end since Slovene police won’t let them camp in for the night is just criminal.

And just to remind you – this is not the first case of mob justice in this country. Remeber Ambrus and the Strojan Family? Precisely the same mechanisms were at work yesterday. The fact that this government rode to power on a wave of xenophpby, nationalism and even racism, gives a carte blanche to Podobniks and the likes (Slovenian readers will appreciate the wordplay, no?) to go about serving justice as they see fit.

EDIT: in the comments, crni validly points out that Slovenian police removed the protesters once their Slovenian permit expired. I’m not saying that the entire state apparatus is in on serving mob justice. By “this government” I mean the actual political body and the political parties it consists of.

Oh, and – don’t forget – today is 27 April. Today Slovenia celebrates the formation of the Liberation front in 1941. Detailed info here, this year let me just announce that I’ll be doing the Liberation Day Hike on May 10th and you are welcome to join in.

Smrt fašizmu, svoboda narodu!

It’s a mistake once sang Men At Work and it is quite possible that Janez Janša was whistling up that particular tune when he admited some weeks ago that it was a mistake to sell Mercator, the largest retail chain in Slovenia to Laško brewery and Istrabenz.

Bloodhounds

It has now become clear that in a meeting in late August 2005 Janez Janša agreed to sell Mercator to Istrabenz, headed by Janša’s wartime buddy and former best friend Igor Bavčar, to Laško Brewery, headed by Boško Šrot and to KD Group, headed by Matjaž Gantar, then a member of Janša’s Strategic Economic Council (SECO), concocting up flat-tax ideas.

The deal was that KD Group, Istrabenz and Laško would buy shares of Mercator owned by both state funds (KAD and SOD) – 25% if total number if shares at their current price. This of course meant that the government didn’t make any extra money out of if. Remember, we are talking about the biggest retail chain the country. The bidding price should be way above market price. But that was the government end of the deal. There were rewards for the three companies as well. Laško got a hold of the largest distributor of its products, Matjaž Gantar was (and still is) to buy a strong bank and Igor Bavčar sort of got the go ahead for MBO of Istrabenz. By buying Mercator, however, the three companies also got a substantial ownership of Delo newspaper, Janša’s ultimate goal of this chess game. Soon, KD Group sold its shares of Mercator to Laško. Istrabenz did it some time later and Laško announced a formal takeover of the paper. But – it named Janša’s people to the paper’s supervisory board and not members of Laško management as it would seem appropriate. Laško thus gave Delo to Janša. Or so it seemed

Fast forward a year and a half and Janša gets stabbed in the back by Andrijana Starina Kosem, his hench-woman in the world of economy. Soon after that Laško (being now the sole owner of Delo) replaces Janša’s Board members at Delo and replaces them with its own people, naming Andrijana Starina Kosem president of the supervisory board. In the mean time Zoran Janković got elected as mayor of Ljubljana and is fast becoming a politial force to be reckoned with. Matjaž Gantar didn’t get the bank that was promised to him and quit SECO and joined LDS’s team of economic experts and Igor Bavčar and Janša became foes at least for the time being as Istrabenz sold it’s Mercator shares, enabling Laško to control the company and by extention own Delo completely. Shortly before that, in an attempt at keeping his job, Danilo Slivnik, CEO of Delo (an ardent Janša supporter whose assuming the position was part of the deal) fired the criminally incompetent Editor-in-Chief Peter Jančič and replaced him with Janez Markeš, Editor-in-Chief of a centre-right magazine Mag (acquired by Delo some years ago via political pressure as well). But of course Slivnik did not keep his job and Delo as a whole embarked on a path much more critical to the government than before – one must note that after the August 2005 deal Delo was purged of its more popular journalists and became very pro-government. Politicaly, this thing culminated for the first time with the vote of confidence to Janša’s government, which the PM abused for a massive reckoning with the media.

But it did not end there… In the dwindling days of 2007 Boško Šrot (who turned out to be a member of Pahor’s Social Democrats but left the party soon after the disclosure) gave an interview to his Delo, where he blatantly attacked the Prime Minister of meddling with the media but claimed that it was Zoran Janković who wanted to deal with Janša in the first place and that he (Šrot) was defending himself anyway he could. Zoran Janković replied early in 2008 (Tuesday last) and said that Boško Šrot is a liar and that he (Janković) never offered to deal with Janša.

Personally, I think the whole thing was pretty well summarised by ervinator in this post when he summarised statements by Jaković, Šrot and Starina Kosem as all of them saying that everything in this story is true except their allegend mischiefs.

Which brings us to the following question: what was Janša thinking? In hindsight it becomes paintfully obvious that he wanted Delo so badly that was willing to do almost anything to get it. And since the state couldn’t actually buy the newspaper, he had others (Laško, Istrabenz and KD Group) buy it for him. But he (that is, the government) didn’t own it. And so as Laško saw that it could achieve other goals with Delo (say, for example, support the opposition and make it eternally grateful, or perhaps take care of Andrijana Starina Kosem who was instrumental in Laško becoming as powerful as it is), it flipped Janša the bird and left him gaping. So the answer to the question “what was Janša thinking” is obviously “not much”.

But then there is the business angle to it. While controlling Delo and Mercator is a political question to Janša (and – quite possibly – Borut Pahor), it is also a business question to Šrot, Bavčar, Janković, Gantar and Starina Kosem. Of the five Bavčar is on weakest footing as he is basically a politician, whereas the other four are business people more or less politically active. And so one can be almost positive that the current accusations and counter-accusations are a negotiating tactic aimed at achieving the best possible starting positions for the period when Janša’s rule will end. Business smells political blood and Janša is at the moment gushing at the veins.

At the moment a powerful part of Slovene economy and the Mayor of Ljubljana are holding the front against PM Janša, while Matjaž Gantar and Igor Bavčar are awfully quiet. The former because he is about to start his own bank (not being able to buy one) and the latter because he is kept in check by attempted takeover by state-owned Petrol oil company. This all comes handy to the opposition which doesn’t really want to come off as unpatriotic by attacking the government during EU presidency.

But if this enterprise is succesful (i.e.: Janša is voted out of office) Janković and Šrot will present a hefty bill, not easily swallowed by the new government.

President-elect Danilo Türk took the oath of office yesterday and will assume the powers of the President of the Republic of Slovenia later today. He will replace Janez Drnovšek, who will apparently totally retire from political life (and otherwhise) after being at the very top of the political pyramid for exactly two decades.

Source: Žurnal24

Political comentators this side of the newly-erased Schengen border tend to look at Drnovšek’s presidency as two separate movies. One pre-dating his spiritual renewal and one post-dating it.

For the uninitiated, a quick recap. After falling ill with cancer still while PM, Janez Drnovšek was always eyed with a bit of suspicion as far as his medical condition was involved. Since Slovenes are notoriouls secretive about personal matters (i.e.: personal whealth, healt, domestic abuse, extramarital affairs and the likes), it was sort of deemed inappropriate to ask the president about his healts. Even during his campaign the question was barely touched upon, as if the other side knew that a negative campaign would do more harm than good (a lesson which seems to have been lost on Türk’s opponents during this year’s presidential campaign). Anyways. Drle (as the outgoing Prez was known) was elected and he went below radar almost immediately. He attended only top-of-the-line state functions (in stark opposition with his predecesor, the legendary Milan Kučan, who -it seemed- attended every ceremony in 500 kilometre radius). He cut his workload to the point of Jožef Školč calling him lazy at one point. And Školč, mind you, does not have many expeditious qualities himself 😉

And then -all of a sudden- the President starts mingling with the alternative crowd (shamans, medicine men, people like that). For example: he is the only foreign dignitary to have attended inauguration of Bolivian president Evo Morales at the altitude of almost 4000 metres (that’s 12000 feet) in the Andes and survive, where most people skipped the event because of a severe shortage of oxygen at that altitude. He also took interest in the Darfur crisis long before Goran Višnjić and his ER team discovered it on the map. His moves were rather erratic and he seemed to lose interest in a particular matter quicker than you could say “alternative medicine”. Except in Darfur, when he even hosted some sort of peace negotiations, but failed to get anywhere. But all of these are just episodes in a life of a somewhat eccentric president.

In my opinion the true political legacy of President Drnovšek is at least two-fold.

One: He was instrumental in completing the political transition of this country. With his political “exit-stage-left” we can put an end to a period of two decades of Slovenia making it big. Much like the country he ran (or helped run) in those 20 years, he too came out of the blue and immediately had everyone’s attention. Contraty to expectations, he was elected member of the Yugoslav federal presidency in what was possibly the first somewhat fair elections in Slovenia in 1988 – and he never left the stage again. He was there when Yugoslavia broke apart, when Slovenia declared indepencendence and when Slovenia negotiated peace with the federal army. But in 1992 he was elected prime minister as Lojze Peterle (remember him?) was given a vote of no confidence. Drnovšek and his Liberal Democrats set about doing some real social and economic transition. Ten years and three mandates as PM and one kidney later he was elected the president of the republic, as Milan Kučan’s second term ended. He left a remarkable record, with Slovenia being on the brink of becoming a member of EU and NATO, with an ever stronger economy and a growing reputation in the world (OK, there was the small mater of Dimitrij Rupel, but we’ll save than one for some other time). In short – he showed that it can be done. All it takes is a worthy goal,

Two: As president he showed that his office bears more than just a distanced dignity. When government of Janez Janša lost touch with reality, Drnovšek (at this poing already slightly etheral) took it upon himself to call spade a spade and tear Janša’s government to pieces where deserved. Among other things he called Jaša the Prince od darkness and accused him (rightly, I think) of dictatorial tendencies. And Drnovšek should know, as he had to remove Janša as defence minister in 1994 because of the Depala vas indicent (one of the two attempts at a coup d’etat in this country). But the move of his presidency came exactly a year ago when he came to try to help the Strojan family (the Romas who were ran out from the village of Ambrus by the majority population), when he told off the people of Ambrus and told them that – although they swore by all that’s holy – they are not true Catholics because they cause suffering of fellow men. While his mission was unsuccessful, it showed the pettyness, small-mindedness and xenophoby of Slovenes.

And that is what a true president should do. To tell the people of his country where they fall short and where they are trully great.

But most of all – regardless of what other people think – Janez Drnovšek loathed ruling. I’m not saying he didn’t like the power, but for almost every single day of the past two decades he gave the impression that he would rather be somewhere else. And that is about as much as you can as of any politican.

As for Danilo Türk: he may have a better hand at solving international crises but first he’ll have to solve several domestic ones