SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

OK people, this has got to stop. Seriously. I can’t leave this country alone for five minutes without shit happening (EDIT: on second thought, it is probably her fault 😈 ). To cut a long story short, last week agents of the newly minted National Bureau of Investigation (yes, think FBI) detained minister of agriculture Milan Pogačnik, leader of Slovene National Party (SNS) Zmago Jelinčič and an SNS MP Srečko Prijatelj. As you would imagine, all hell broke loose, especially after it emerged that this was a result of a four-months-long sting operation, whose primary target was Prijatelj, whereas Jelinčič and Pogačnik got caught in it en passant. As a result, minister Pogačnik (already heavily wounded because of the canine affair) resigned, Jelinčič is fighting some seriously bad press and is inventing ever more wild conspiracy theories, whereas Prijatelj was put under arrest on charges of extortion as he was picked up after receiving some 320.000 EUR in what was allegedly blackmail money. He remains in custody.

Srečko Prijatelj befriending cops (source)

It was a bombshell. There I was, entertaining happy troubles about whether go up the Empire State Building or The Rockefeller Center (The Rock won, thanks Adriaan), and the very next moment I read – or rather, am alerted to the fact – that the sky is falling down back home. So, what exactly happened?

According to various media reports Prijatelj was under surveillance for suspicion of blackmail and extortion in some real-estate mumbo-jumbo, where allegedly he, his friend (now somewhat alienated) Marijan Mikuž and former CEO of Slovenia’s main port Luka Koper Robert Časar divided profits from a scheme where state-owned Luka Koper sold some real-estate cheap to Mikuž’s firm (co-owned by Prijatelj’s wife), whereas the firm then leased that same real estate back to the port at double the price. The story goes that the trio supposedly worked well together, since Časar had access to some prime real estate out there, Prijatelj had some leverage as an MP, whereas Mikuž’s firms were used as a front for what was is fact a classic swindle. Until, apparently, Prijatelj started claiming that Mikuž owed his some serious money (whether or not that is true remains to be seen) and started threatening him and his family. Mikuž even claims that Prijatelj gave him the “kiss of death” and pulled a gun on him at which point he went to the cops. They put a wire on him, provided him with 320k EUR (amount Prijatelj is said to have demanded from Mikuž) and picked the MP up as the transfer was made.

Now, Srečko Prijatelj (whose surname literally translates as “Friend”. Go figure) is a generally disagreeable character. His hate speech is even more vulgar and below-the-belt than that of his party boss Zmago Jelinčič. To astonishment of many, he even won a law suit against a journalsit of Mladina weekly who labelled him as “cerebrally bankrupt” after he mimicked and stereotyped speech and body language of homosexuals. The ruling is now being appealed in Strassbourg, after a it got a somewhat unexpected nod by the Slovene Constitutional Court. The fact that he is disagreeable does of cource not make him inherently criminal and it has to be said that the investigation is ongoing and that charges against him have yet to be proven. However, this thing will have serious (if not huge) implications for the immediate political future. Not just that of Srečko Prijatelj, but that of Zmago Jelinčič as well as – possibly – the political right as a whole.

Namely, we are dealing with several overlapping stories. First, there is the investigation of alleged malpractice and abuse of power by former CEO of Luka Koper Robert Časar, who was appointed to this position by the government of Janez Janša. Allegedly tens of millions of euros evaporated as a result of his actions. While the police were investigating (even before NBI was formed), apparently Srečko Prijatelj popped up as actively involved in a part of this enterprise, so they put a tab on his communications as well. And in this way the cops learned about the deal SNS boss Zmago Jelinčič and now-ex minister Milan Pogačnik made. Pogačnik was to secure transfer or some 40 acres of farming land in Prekmurje region to municipality of Murska Sobota, which would in turn decree this become building land, where Zmago Jenlinčič would be able to build Aeronautics Museum, a project he lobbied for vigorously for the last ten years. In turn, SNS would support Pogačnik in a looming interpelation vote.

Since Pogačnik was a huge liability ever since the canine scandal, this latest revelation provided just that final merciful shot which killed off his mortally wounded political life. Although it must be said that – despite the overwhelming public and media outcry – there is nothing particularly wrong with that Jelinčič and Pogačnik were up to. True, the museum is Jelinčič’s pet project and he probably had as much to gain from it as did the municipality where it would have been built. But that is the way politics is being made. I’ll support you if you support my project. It may not be the most beautiful or the most exciting side of politics, but there you go. This is precisely the way budget funds are appropriated and policies crafted. Most of them, anyway.

When Janez Janša needed those extra six votes of DeSUS to build his ruling coalition in 2004, he heeded to a demand by Karl Erjavec that pensions should be raised at the same rate as salaries are. This bought Erjavec a lot of stock with the older population (my pensioners, he used to say), while it bought Janša his parliamentary majority. The fact that it nudged the pension fund even closer to insolvency as it already was, didn’t matter.

But since public and media reactions bear only scant relation to reality (as we’ve seen recently) the damage is done and political heads have rolled. Pogačnik is down and out, while Prijatelj claims innocence and refuses to step down as MP. But he is detained at the moment which makes SNS one MP short. Not that the party and its leader Zmago Jelinčič have a lot to look forward to. Having been comfortably well off poll-wise, Jelinčič was eyeing becomng even more mainstream. And he had a lot of help especially from SDS and SLS who are rapidly becoming ever more nationalistic and radical themselves, therefore making SNS even more politically acceptable to right-wing voters.

Jelinčič aimed to ride that trend, which showed in the way he piggybacked on SDS proposal that the Law on Capital City be declared unconstitutional. The law is a sort-of-but-not-quite thank you note to Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković, who campaigned hard for the ruling coalition prior 2008 elections, mostly on the grounds that the government of Janez Janša deprived Ljubljana of some 60 million euros of budget money, and arguably delivered the victory to Borut Pahor. He fully expected the new government to give the money back, but was to be bitterly disappointed and got only 16 million, plus a promise that certain project can be funded directly from state budget. But as this is a year for municipal elections, SDS needs to strengthen its position on non-Ljubljana areas, which is achieved the easiest by claiming that the new government prefers the capital over other regions.

However, this move, led by Janša’s chief parliamentary hawk Branko Grims (a Kranj native. Figures) more or less fucked Ljubljana SDS, by putting them in an awkward position. If they support the party central, they’ve more or less already lost the elections in Ljubljana, as mayor Janković will beat them to death with a mantra of “first-you-took-60-million-and-now-you-want-to-take-16-as-well”, whereas they can’t really afford to oppose the move either, as the branch just got new leadership, after the old leadership was described as too doveish by Janša himself.

Anyways, Jelinčič wanted to piggyback on this SDS blunder, looking to pick up enough votes in Ljubljana municipal elections to enable him and/or his party to return to the city council. He probably figured that anti-Janković voters would be just confused enough to vote for him, the master of short and sizzly sentences and quick solutions. But as he is now being painted just as corrupt as he is usually painting others, this master plan might not bear fruit.

Which then leaves just a question of whether all of this is a result of a months-long criminal investigation, or – as Jelinčič claims a left-wing conspiracy, led by Interior Minister Katarina Kresal and aimed to divert the public from scandals she herself is embroiled in.

Pengovsky says the first option is more likely, especially since four months ago the only thing nagging the coalition was the economic crisis and Katarina Kresal was at the top of her game. But as we have noted several times before: public opinion and media reports need not necessary be based on reality. And the same goes for politicians’ statements.

The Parliament yesterday started what promises to be the most hardcore session in recent history. The new Family Code legalising same-sex marriages and adoptions, a law on reinstitution of rights to The Erased and – last but certainly not least – start of impeachment proceedings against President Danilo Türk have the potential to develop into a political perfect storm.

How Türk’s impeachment would have looked if Janša had his way (source, edit by pengovsky)

As things stand now the political left is not in the best of shapes. The government of Borut Pahor as a whole is about as popular as a Klingon opera while the opposition is having a field day with individual ministers and/or party leaders. Parliamentary investigation of Gregor Golobič is slowly but surely transforming into a full-blown Spanish Inquisition, where the initial charges were proven wrong, but that doesn’t matter, because he surely is quilty, they just have to find out what of. Or so their reasoning seems to go.

Minister of health Borut Miklavčič is facing calls to resign because he apparently signed a bad contract with GlaxoSmithKline for delivery of swine-flu vaccine. Imagine what would happen if he didn’t sing the contract in the first place. He’d probably be taken off stage legs-first. As things stand that may indeed happen. Days ago Miklavčič was hospitalised for the third time in less than a year. Last summer he suffered a mild stroke and was advised to lighten his workload. Being in a middle of health reform Miklavčič, a known workaholic, agreed to work only twelve hours a day and on Monday the devil came to collect. It may well be that PM Pahor will gave to look for a new health minister toot-suite

Then there are the inevitable interpelations of agriculture minister Milan Pogačnik and interior minister Katarina Kresal, both of which are embroiled in the canine scandal. In all honesty, Kresal is in such deep shit only by virtue of her partner Miro Senica being the attorney to the late Sašo Baričević who is suspected of animal abuse, but there you go. It’s not what you do, it’s who you know.

And as of today it is quite probable that minister of labour, family and social affairs will become the next target. According to “traditionalist” groups the new Family Code will surely bring about the apocalypse as it violates the “natural order” where some people can have a family, whereas others are not allowed to. The debate predictably runs along ideological lines, which pengovsky detailed here some time ago. Even more. If the code is passed, those opposing it will call for a referendum. Which will probably (athough this is not certain) be struck down by the Constitutional Court. Which will probably then lead to calls for constitutional judges to be replaced as well.

The political right goes on to say that ust as same-sex couples should not be granted rights their heterosexual counterparts already have (as this would have lead to the destruction of the nation) so too should the Erased be prevented from reinstitution of their “legal alien” status, backdated to 1992, as this is unpatriotic, costly and will surely lead to the destruction of the nation. Even more, in both cases human rights of these two particular groups of citizens are, well, expendable in the wider interests of the society (“wider”, “interest” and “society” being defined by the political right itself :)).

However.

Those same human rights suddenly become paramount in case of impeachment of President Danilo Türk, who – as readers of this blog know – somewhat foolhardily gave a medal to the last socialist interior secretary Tomaž Ertl. Türk allegedly violated as much as thirty-four articles of the constitution, especially rights of those who were harassed by UDBa. This too is tantamount to high treason and utterly unpatriotic, or so the opposition says. This too, was covered here in detail and pengovsky won’t go into it again. But point is that on one hand human rights are paramount, whereas on the other their continuous violation is only encouraged, but demanded.

Which brings us to the final point of today’s longish post. Human rights, morals, patriotism and even “natural order” are but consumables, poker chips which are thrown on the table when upping the ante, in a game where ever more galactic bets are being made, where the ultimate prize is not money, but political power. To attain it, anything and everything is allowed. Judgements are being passed in advance, regardless of the facts. If the latter don’t fit the theory, so much worse for the facts. And when these judgements will not be upheld by the appropriate institutions, then – it can be expected – calls will be made to replace those institutions as well.

The hunting season is open. Literally. First the three bulmastifs went after their owner and mauled him to death. The investigation as to why and what exactly happened is still under way and (albeit strong) suspicions that the three members of canine persuasion were abused have yet to be confirmed. But that did not stop the media to succumb to the scent of blood and sperm and started beating the drums, turning the general population into a pack of rabid dogs and let them loose to go after whoever they came by.

(source)

Minister for agriculture Milan Pogačnik of Social Democrats was starting to feel the heat almost immediately after the attack. After all the Veterinary Administration which (following a court order) released the dogs into the late Saša Baričevič‘s custody is under his jurisdiction. Allegations of pressure being brought to bear surfaced and the whole thing started to look as if the laws apply differently to the powerful few than to the rest of us. So an interpelation was filed against minister Pogačnik who (you shan’t be surprised) denies any wrongdoing and insists that the law was followed to the letter and that in the end there was a decision of the Administrative Court which the ministry and the Veterinary Administration had to fulfil. The court said that the dogs are to be returned to their owner because the provision of mandatory extermination after an attack came into force after the process had started.

But as this angle was still being explored the “blood and sperm” thing exploded. The fact that Miro Senica, partner (spouse) of minister of interior Katarina Kresal of LDS represented Baričevič in the above case was bad enough (although Kresal was not minister when Senica took the case). But then allegations (completely unfounded, btw) of a media cover-up were circulated by the yellow press and were immediately followed by speculation that either Kresal or Senica (or both) knew about the alleged abuse (note the three-fold conditional). Even more, as days passed (and Kresal remained curiously quiet) speculation mounted that she somehow tried to influence the police or that the cops intentionally dragged their feet investigating. Therefore SDS, SNS and SLS filed for interpelation of minister Katarina Kresal.

So, now we have two ministers being dragged in front of the firing squad, so to speak. In case of Kresal this is the sencond time in less then a year (an interpelation against her was filed by SDS, SNS and SLS 364 days ago). But things do not stop there. As it happens, minister of justice Aleš Zalar is under fire as well, supposedly because his brother was on the judiciary panel of the Administrative Court which – it is now being argued – actually fucked up and interpreted the law wrongly. Things are not helped by the fact that Zalar is embroiled in a bitter dispute with General Prosecutor Barbara Brezigar who is politically closer to the opposition. As of this writing Zalar is neither a subject of an interpelation nor was he called on to resign, but give it a week. So. Minister three under fire.

Not that it stops there. Minister Gregor Golobič of Zares yesterday testified in front of an committee investigating his alleged abuse of power in acquiring an unsecured credit line for Ultra, a company where he holds a 7% stake. Pengovsky covered the Ultra affair at length here and here, so do your homework 🙂 Golobič is in fact the first public official to be under investigation by a parliamentary committee in the history of Slovenia (all others investigative committees only called public officials as witnesses). Minister number four being forced to walk the plank.

To go on. Today, the opposition demanded that minister of health Borut Miklavčič resign because of the deal with GlaxoSmithKline for the swine flu vaccine. It has emerged that Miklavčič could do little but say yes the terms of the deal (most importantly) the price, but he did negotiate slightly better delivery dates and the provision that Slovenia will not pay for surplus vaccine. But the catch is that – according to the contract now made public – the state would have to pay for any and all potential damages awarded had any lawsuits been filed because of complications due to vaccination. The thing is that – according to the minister – the law says otherwise which makes this particular stipulation in the contact null and void. Furthermore Miklavčič says that he did nothing wrong and that had he not agreed to the conditions of GSK and Slovenia did not get the vaccine in time, he would be held responsible when the flu struck.

And, to top it off, last Friday SDS president Janez Janša posted a conspiracy-cum-philosophy text entitled “There is no god. Everything is allowed.” where he outlines what he sees as the fundamental corruption and moral wrong of the political left which – according to Janša – stemming from the criminal roots of communism had flourished until today, perverting justice, bending the rules and – defying all things sound and moral – took every advantage to increase its own wealth and power to the point of being obscene:

As ever more bizarre details of the [canine] garage affair are unveiled, as new information about abusing judicial and administrative procedures is coming out daily, people who ask themselves how all of this is even possible should know this: if murder remained unpunshied, then that went double for theft and abuse of state, people and animals.

Time allowing I’ll translate this text as it will (I suspect) become an oft-quoted piece of Slovene political thought.

So, as you can see, no punches are being pulled. The dogs are out and the hunters are following. They smell blood. Question is, what if it leads them where they don’t want to go?

The late president Drnovšek (source)

Today marks the second anniversary of death of President Janez Drnovšek. If a year ago pengovsky asked whether we had learned anything from him (and went with “no”), the situation today makes even the question itself sound naive. If last year the political right wing was up in arms over the question of The Erased, this year the topic-du-jour are equal rights for same-sex couples. Actually, strike that. The topic-du-jour were equal rights for same-sex couples. Today, most of the nation is on the prowl against any sort of deviation from “normality”, be this deviation actual or imagined, personal or political.

Two years ago it was considered deviant to support the plight of the Roma population. A year ago it was considered deviant and unpatriotic to support the plight of The Erased. Some months ago it was considered to be deviant, unpatriotic and amoral to support the rights of same-sex couples. Today, it is considered sick and perverted just to be left-wing or to now the “wrong kind of people”. Or both. President Drnovšek rarely passed judgement. Even less so while he was still Prime Minister. But when he spoke, his words had merit. Today, a lot of what is being said is judgemental to start with and is fluff to boot. God’s name is being taken in vain and big words are being used to describe small achievements.

And yet, this is the hand we were dealt. Pengovsky has no idea what President Drnovšek thought would become of Slovenia in 2010. He may have even envisaged the very thing were are going through today. But it doesn’t really matter. The future is what lies ahead and it is in our name that we should be creating it. It would not hurt, however, to look up to the late president for inspiration from time to time. He was dealt quite a rotten hand and still played a brilliant game. But he knew to tell the really important stuff from the whole sort of general mish-mash.

Petra Majdič after winning bronze in Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics (source)

The courage to ignore the obvious wisdom of turning back.

Some ask whether it is worth it? It was for Petra Majdič. Way to go, girl! You just put Chuck Norris to shame!

But there’s a time and place for everything. Now is the time to go home and patch yourself up.

(inspired by despair.com)

If one took for granted all that is being said and written on the canine subject these days, then half of Slovenia are working for the Veterinary Administration, the other half are members of the Police investigating the scene of the attack, whereas the third half are pals with the first two halves