Jernej Vrtovec | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Janša 4.0: Grown-ups, Dependents And True Believers

Ten days ago Janez Janša was sworn in as the next prime minister. This made a lot of people in Muddy Hollows really angry and was widely considered to be a bad move. Especially among the dreamers, thinkers, speculative progressives… or, as right-wing pundits would have it, idiots.

Ten days ago Janez Janša was sworn in as the next prime minister. Now he is populating his fourth administration mostly with loyalists and people depending on him for political survival. — *Yup, this is us… (source)*

However, Glorious Leader updating his Twitter bio was only part of the task. A big part, to be sure, but this is one of those nothing-is-done-until-everything-is-done type of things. And since there is no Janša government without people for Janša to, well, govern, the grand finale started on Monday, with would-be ministers testifying in front of various parliamentary committees. Barring any mayor fuck-ups Slovenia will have Marshal Twito’s fourth government by tomorrow evening.

When You’re In A Campaign Hole…

With three weeks left in this campaign, the race in Slovenian parliamentary election is tightening. And this being Muddy Hollows and whatnot, of course (some) parties chose the stupidest of hills to die on.

Seats in Slovenian parliament. The prize in every election and the focus of any campaign. — *Seats in Slovenian parliament. The prize in every election*

The hill in question being the digital presence of influencer Aleksandar Repić. Like, fucking everything is in play and yet the right wing picked a influencer-pimp as their cause célèbre. You literally cannot make this shit up.

Stupid Before The Storm: Mother Of All Walkbacks

Slowly, with the speed of a decrepit snail on valium, pengovsky is bringing this blog up to speed all the stupid that happened in the lull before the campaign storm. And at last, we get to take a look at the NATO near-miss that made everyone look up and ask whether Slovenian political class really is capable of handling this sovereign state thingy.

NATO and Muddy Hollows. because pengovsky couldn't be bothered with yet another picture of PM Golob to represent the mother of all walkbacks — *NATO and Muddy Hollows. because pengovsky couldn’t be bothered with yet another picture of PM Golob*

As everyone knows by now, there will not be a referendum on Slovenian NATO membership. There will not even be a referendum on defence spending resolution. In fact, six weeks after nearly sleepwalking into a clusterfuck of epic proportions, people involved are pretending like the whole thing never happened.

NSi Discontinues Matej Tonin

Matej Tonin, the Internet Explorer of Slovenian politics, will receive no further upgrades as of September this year. The NSi leader who came to power in a coup against Ljudmila Novak back in 2017 exited the stage in pretty much the same fashion, back-stabbed by his own party council.

Like Windows 10, Matej Tonin has reached end-of-support. There will be no further updates to the software. Ljudmila Novak would like a word while Janez Janša is chuckling. — *End of NSi support for Matej Tonin*

Namely, despite earlier assurances to the contrary, NSi honchos decided on Friday afternoon they are amenable to teaming up with Janez Janša and his SDS after the 2026 election. And so they did to Tonin what Tonin did to Ljudmila Novak, and cachiered him unceremoniously. Just as pengovsky prediced a year ago.