Well…
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In a completely predictable (and, indeed, predicted) turn of events the much-hyped initiative to recognise Palestine by Slovenian foreign minister Karl Erjavec unceremoniously petered out earlier today as the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs failed to vote on the motion, thus freezing the entire process and for all intents and purposes killing it.
Continue reading Notes On Slovenian Recognition of Palestine (Part 3)
Shocking journalists around the world Europe who after more than a decade again had to struggle with the difference between Slovenia and Slovakia, prime ministers of both countries tendered their resignations yesterday within hours of each other. Pengovsky being pengovsky, however, we’ll skip Slovenia Slovakia and just do Muddy Hollows where Miro Cerar resigned on the heels of a court annulment of results of the referendum of the second line of the Koper-Divača railway.
…with apologies to Kiefer Sutherland
The gist of it is that while the government won the vote back in September of last year, it failed to win the constitutional challenge of the result, owing to some very weird and novel interpretations of the constitution and referendum legislation. Be that as it may, the Supreme Court, following the decision of the Constitutional Court, decided that the campaign was not fair (specifically, the government’s role in it) hence the result is invalidated and the vote should be repeated. However, there’s more to that than meets the eye.
Among the more bizarre turns the as-yet-unofficial election campaign in Muddy Hollows has taken is definitely the sudden rush trot of politicos to Instagram. Ever since president Pahor got a couple of positive write-ups on Politico for his Instagram antics the accepted wisdom seems to be that IG is the new black [Slavoj Žižek voice] and so on and so on…
Karl Erjavec’s increasingly popular Instagram account (source)
The main object of fascination in the past few weeks was none other than foreign minister and leader of pensioner’s party Karl Erjavec who took Slovenian Instagram by something of a storm. His trademark man-of-the-people-meets-Captain-Obvious approach has earned him roars of approval on the social network.
Continue reading So, How’s That Instagram Thing Working For You?
Say what you will about the current crop of Slovenian leaders, but their blandness does have an upside. As boring and forgettable as they are, they’re also several orders of magnitude more civil and restrained in their public communication as their immediate competition. Not that the bar is particularly high, though…
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Case in point leader of the SDS Janez Janša who seems to have developed both a knack for uttering things beyond the pale as well as a surprisingly thin skin. Days ago, for example, he picked on a private citizen, an entrepreneur who took issue with one of his more absurd and incendiary Facebook posts of late.
Continue reading In Which Leader Of The Opposition Bullies A Private Citizen
Remember the excitement that followed the announcement of imminent Slovenian recognition of Palestine? Well, guess what…
Slovenian ministry of foreign affairs (source)
Turns out Newton’s Third Law applies to diplomacy as well. Foreign minister Karl Erjavec made a big splash about it, declaring that the time is right, that Slovenia will press on with this regardless of support (or lack thereof) within the EU and that it’s about time this country shows it can craft and independent foreign policy. Only a week later his foot is dangerously close to meeting his mouth.
Continue reading Notes On Slovenian Recognition of Palestine (Part 2)
One has to feel sorry for the Palestinians these days. Not only are they being roundly fucked over (again) with the US now not even pretending to be an honest broker any-more, they’re also being used as a campaign prop in Muddy Hollows. And you can tell by the photo below Abu Mazen is none too pleased about it.
Karl Erjavec and Mahmoud Abbass (source: Slovenian MFA)
Namely, Karl Erjavec, leader of pensioners’ party DeSUS who also doubles as foreign minister announced yesterday that Slovenia is ready to recognise Palestine as a sovereign country even without concerted action on the part of the EU and has indicated the parliament could vote on this in March or April. What Erjavec hasn’t indicated, however, is the fact that Slovenia will hold parliamentary elections in late May or early June.
Continue reading Notes On Slovenian Recognition of Palestine
Pengovsky did some punditizing for media outlets which really should have known better in the last couple of days and weeks which means it’s time both readers of this blog be brought up to speed on the recent developments in Muddy Hollows. Which, fairly or not, have for the past ten days or so been focused on the loan-taking habits of the largest opposition party.
The Glorious Leader holding half a rock.
Namely, it transpired that SDS in order to finance the upcoming election campaigns took out a funny-looking EUR 450.000 loan from Dijana Đuđić, a 32-year-old Bosnian Serb woman. As the story broke, the faeces met with the proverbial rotating air blades apparatus, providing for a spectacular shitshow.
