Slovene political arena is bustling with activity – even more so after the presidential elections. I haven’t posted a real political entry ever since the PM won the vote of confidence and – by extention – earned himself a new nickname: Calimero (I can’t help but think of this post and pat myself on the back :))
Dubbed “The Prince of Darkness” Lord Janez turns out to be Darth Janša 
To put it in military terms (I think), both sides of the political spectrum have tried to take the initiative in the past month. And although it may seem that Janez Janša and his government are on the run, they have very well managed to set the pace of the public debate ever since the presidential elections. But there is a catch:
Time and again we’ve seen Janša fire a full spread at seemingly at rather small targets. Time and again he advocated (and implemented) hard-line measures for goals that obviously needed a soft approach. When he came to power he went about subjugating the economy rather then winning it over. When Janša turned his sights on the media, he went about subjugating rather than winning them over (not all of them, of course, some were already strongly supportive of him). And when Janša finally seemed to have won over someone (namely the opposition for the duration of the presidency of the EU and to help him with implementing reforms) he produced a huge rise in inflation, making him as popular as a three-day-old used band-aid.
You see, the main problem this government has are its promises of a better tomorrow. But the better tomorrow missed the bus and is running late. And since today ain’t too hot either, Janez Janša decided that it is time to fire another volley – this time at the journalists, media as a whole and his allies-until-recent who have turned their backs on him (especially Laško Brewery). He accused them of actively conspiring against his government, simply by reporting about better tomorrow running late and about today being not as advertised. Which (somewhat understandably) sent most journalists and economy on the defensive. And the more they try to disprove the PM’s claims, the more they are proving them – in Janša’s eyes, at least.
And so Janša grabbed the initiative – either on his own or by proxies. The latter come in form of anal reporters (those who intensively kiss his ass), most notably Vladimir Vodušek of RTV SLO (seen here – while still at POP TV – climbing Mount Triglav with the PM and whose wife, BTW, was named ambassador to Bosnia under Janša’s tenure) who hosted a programme Vroči Stol (Hot Seat), aimed at discrediting the current Editor-In-Chief of Delo daily Janez Markeš, even though the show was suppose to deal with influences of capital on media in general.
All of this media bombardment might have even slightly forced the hand of Borut Pahor who yesterday formally announced that he will seek nomination for PM if his Social Democrats win the elections. While his announcement is not unexpected it does show that it was mostly aimed at grabbing headlines, especially since it is worthless from a legal point of view – the president of the republic formally nominates a person to the post of PM and if Social Democrats do win the election it is only natural for Pahor to get the post, whereas if they don’t win, he won’t get the job anyhow. With or without the announcement.
And so the battle continues and will continue for the better part of the next ten months…
