EU | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Tomaž Vesel Dropped Like A Hot Potato. Will Marta Kos or Tanja Fajon Swoop In?

It was six months ago, almost to the day, when PM Robert Golob announced Tomaž Vesel as his party’s pick for a post in the next European Commission. And in the face of skepticism and concerns, the Big Bird was resolute in supporting the nominee. Until Friday afternoon, that is.

Marta Kos and Tanja Fajon are leading contenders for the next EU commissioner from Slovenia after Tomaž Vesel dropped out — *(L-R: Marta Kos, Tanja Fajon, Tomaž Vesel. One is not like the other two)*

Vesel wasn’t the strongest pick to begin with. But in doing what he does best, Golob was staunchly behind his man, until the moment he threw him under the bus. And so Vesel was probably as surprised as the media were yesterday afternoon, when he found out he was stepping away from the nomination. And pengovsky is only half joking there.

Like A Bad Penny, Borut Pahor Keeps Turning Up

While pengovsky was in the US chasing the solar eclipse, Borut Pahor was apparently chasing an EU gig. After none of the high-profile jobs he so often hinted at panned out (to great astonishment of a grand total of zero people), the former president would now like to be the EU’s Kumbaya man for Kosovo and Serbia.

Borut Pahor and Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić — *Aca Vučić and Borut Pahor (right) (source)*

Officially styled as EU Special Representative for Belgrade – Priština dialogue and other Western Balkans regional issues, it is a thankless job. The gig mostly involves coming up with excuses to organise meet-ups between Aca Vučić and whoever Kosovo’s top ćulaf is at any given time, while allowing the two countries can continue to pretend the other doesn’t exist.

One Queen To Rule Them All

At first glance, the passing of Queen Elizabeth II does not seem especially pertinent to the politics of Muddy Hollows. In fact, other than a couple of boilerplate expressions of condolences by the nation’s highest elected officials and a botched (and then deleted) tweet by the Glorious Leader, the death of the worlds longest-serving monarch in, like, ever, was primarily a media fascination.

Queen Elizabeth II during her tour of Slovenian capital Ljubljana (photo by pengovsky) — *Queen Elizabeth during her tour of Ljubljana (source: The Firm(tm))*

That is not to say, however, the late queen and Slovenia never crossed paths. Fourteen years ago, Her Majesty popped over for a three-day state visit. The occasion was correctly seen as a major diplomatic success for a country that had joined the EU and NATO only four years earlier.

Janez Janša And The China Clusterfuck

Every time pengovsky does a series of posts on the state of things in Slovenia, shit happens to interrupt the regular programming. And this time, boy did the excrement hit the oscillator. The story of course is PM Janša’s recent interview for an Indian state TV. The whole things a sight to see, but money-quotes include the Glorious Leader lambasting China for its handling of the epidemic and standing up for Lithuania after the EU member opened a trade office in Taiwan.

PM Janša in a TV interview, talking about China and Taiwan, among other things.

So far so good. The part about the pandemic is a bit impolitic, but OK. He went on to say that Slovenia will follow Lithuania and open its own office in Taipei. Which… um… Right? But then he said “he’d support the sovereign decision of the Taiwanese people to decide for themselves how they want to live”. Not surprisingly, the Chinese foreign office blew its stack. Thus Glorious Leader landed Muddy Hollows in another diplomatic dumpster fire.

Batting for Hungarian Homophobe, Marshal Twito Imperils Slovenian EU Presidency

Janez Janša saw the 30th anniversary of Slovenian independence as something of a personal milestone. He is the only senior figure of the 1991 independence struggle who is still in public service. Everyone else is either retired, dead or in prison. It was to be a joyous occasion, crowned a few days later by Muddy Hollows taking over EU Council presidency.

Marshal Twito falsely accusing Delo's Brussels correspondent of lying. — *Janez Janša falsely accusing Delo’s Brussels correspondent of lying*

Instead, the Glorious Leader spent the anniversary week doing some light LGBT-bashing on the EU stage. With this, he was paying fealty to his Lord Protectór and then denied all of it, only to be, well, outed by none other than Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel. Awkward.