Janez Janša | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (Robert Golob Style)

Harold Wilson was very much correct when he observed that a week is a long time in politics. Let alone eight weeks. Two months ago, Robert Golob was riding high in the polls, courtesy of the immediate aftermath of the August floods. This week, he is running around like a clown across a minefield, kicking MPs out from his party and calling people liars. And it’s only Wednesday.

Robert Golob, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, Mojca Šetinc Pašek and Janez Janša in a parody of a poster of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. — *Sorry, not sorry 🙂*

It is difficult to pin down when exactly things started going tits-up for the Big Bird. It seems a safe bet, however, that forced departures of minister Šinko and Brežan definitely accelerated things. In light of this, losing Sanja Ajanović Hovnik suddenly became a big fucking deal. And then, as it is so often the case, events began.

Flash Flood Of Unity

Pengovsky was either on vacation or steeped in work over the summer. Or both. As a result this here blog got slightly less love than it would have deserved. But that is all water under the bridge now. Or water over the bridge, as it were, as the flash flood in early August wreaked havoc in parts of the country and turned Muddy Hollows from a parable to a literal and very painful fact.

Borut Pahor, Janez Janša and Robert Golob at the one of the sites of the flood disaster — *Borut Pahor, Janez Janša and Robert Golob, united af. (source)*

But with this site being what it is, we should take a look at the political aspects to the calamity, too. Because in the true spirit of that New Yorker cartoon, raging waters may have destroyed large tracts of the country, but for a beautiful moment in time created a lot of unity across the entire political spectrum.

About THAT Janša Retirement Teaser

Muddy Hollows celebrated her birthday last week. And it just so happened that a few days before the big event, N1 media outlet reported that Janez Janša apparently floated the possibility of political retirement. This obviously stopped the political and pundit class dead in their tracks. It also made the off-year anniversary of Slovenian independence that much more interesting.

Silhouette of Janez Janša facing a sunset, symbolising retirement. A composite image. — Is the Glorious Leader riding off into the sunset?

On that note, pengovsky should point out that president NPM delivered her first state-of-the-nation-ish speech as part of the official festivities. And did a fine job of it. She also didn’t mention Marshal Twito, at least not directly. But she did tear him a brand new asshole by forcefully rejecting casual references to civil war. Something Janša was throwing around liberally over the past few weeks.

Anže Logar Takes The Plunge

Former presidential hopeful, foreign minister in the last Janša regime and SDS wonderboy Anže Logar made the long-anticipated, on-again-off-again move and went solo. That said, “plunge” in the title is doing a lot of heavy diving, as it were. If anything, he jumped into the kiddy pool, with floaties on and daddy watching from the sidelines.

Anže Logar and founding members of Platforma Sodelovanja. — Platforma Sodelovanja skeleton crew /w Anže Logar in the middle (source)

Logar, still very much a leading Party member, followed the well-established playbook on launching a high-profile political project in Muddy Hollows. He formed an association. A true, honest-to-god debate club. Think Gentlemen’s Horticultural Society, only it includes women, too. And so, Platforma Sodelovanja (Platform of Cooperation) was born.

Top Court Clears Way For New RTVSLO Law. Kind Of.

The Constitutional Court on Friday lifted the stay of execution of the new RTVSLO legislation. Thus it put out the flaming bag of dogshit it created with the February decision. As a result, despite the court not yet ruling on the substance of the complaint, new RTVSLO management and oversight bodies can take over. They can then finally stop the political clown-car that has been running the public broadcaster into the ground for the last eighteen months.

The Boy with the flute, the RTVSLO symbol, superimposed on a Constitutional Court plaque, combined with a green traffic light. — *Constitutional Court green-lit new RTVSLO legislation (picture by Capt. Obvious)*

That said, the Court also ended up with quite an egg on it face. Mostly for reasons pengovsky pointed out back in February. The court desperately tried to avoid a political fallout. Yet it achieved exactly the opposite and cooked up a clusterfuck of epic proportions in the process. Among other things, it allowed dismantling of RTVSLO to continue unabated, thus failing its own “lesser or two evils” test. It also rendered itself inoperative on this issue. Which is why the top judicial body had to resort to some pretty messy lawyering to sort out this shit out. Kind of.

Janša’s Gift To Robert Golob

The one thing Robert Golob and his coalition really needed right now was a pep talk. You know, like Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday. Or Captain America in Avengers: Endgame. Or Sean Connery in The Hunt For The Red October. Instead, they got Janez Janša and his SDS holding a whole-day government accountability debate. Which, as it turns out, was almost as good.

PM Robert Golob responding to Janez Janša's criticism of his government. — *Golob addressing Janša directly (source: M. Sušnik/Nat’l Assembly)*

The technical term for this is interpellation. It is set out in Artic l e 250 of parliamentary rules and procedures, for all you nerds out there. But in a move that was as pointless as it was petty, the Party invoked it against the entire government. With this, they ensured the whole thing would have no repercussions at all. And they only did it to cut the NSi off at the pass, anyhow.

Will Robert Golob Party Like It’s 2011?

By the time you read this, it will have been almost a year since Robert Golob wiped the floor with Janez Janša at the ballot box. But if the first couple of months were a case study in differences between the Big Bird and the Glorious Leader, a new and most unflattering comparison crept up lately. Comparing prime minister Golob to none other than Borut fucking Pahor.

Robert Golob chased by the shadow of Borut Pahor — *The ghost of Borut Pahor past*

It is a complete coincidence that pengovsky’s last post was on the political legacy of the King of Instagram. Or, rather, the lack thereof. But maybe this is not a coincidence. Maybe it is just the universe trying to point out the goddamn obvious. Namely, that if he is not careful, Robert Golob will piss away all the political advantage he has and end up chasing his own tail while the world around him starts burning yet again. Party like it’s 2011, anyone?