SDS | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

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.

Janša’s Seniors Ask For A Happy End

Reader, I shit you not. A happy end. To be honest, the entire meat of this post can be stiffed into the title. Like a skin boat going to tuna town. Still, this is supposedly a blog about Muddy Hollows politics. So, let’s pitch a tent and see just why SDS seniors got down to the parliament yesterday and engaged in some early afternoon delights.

SDS pensioners standing by a protest sign demanding a 200 EUR raise in pensions and a happy end. — *SDS silver-haired samurais demanding a happy end, as it were. (source: RTVSLO)*

On the face of it, Janša’s silver-haired samurais demanded a 20% raise of pensions and a slew of other bonuses. Which, yeah, good luck with that. But the real message here weren’t the demands as such. The message was that Janša can still whip up a crowd. Even though his general political fortunes are more like a brewer’s droop. The other message was that apparently his senior section really wants to come.

Once More Unto The Referendum Breach, Dear Friends

Apologies for abusing The Bard, but the upcoming referendum votes do have a tinge of Shakespearean drama to it. Or maybe it is the Shakespearean length of this post. Who knows. To quote Hamlet, fuck it. Going to the polls for the third time in as many weeks, and for the fifth time in eight months, is not a regular occurrence in Muddy Hollows.

Shepherd boy with flute symbolises RTVSLO. The fate of the public broadcaster in Slovenia will be determined on a referendum on Sunday. — *Shepherd boy with flute, by Zdenko Kalin, symbolising RTVSLO since forever. But for how long? (source)*

And yet, this Sunday might prove to be just as crucial as the April parliamentary election was. For those of you living under a rock for the past few months, Slovenians are about vote in three different referendums on Sunday. There is a vote in the Government Act, on the law on elderly care, and the law on RTVSLO, the public broadcaster. A fucking cornucopia of direct democracy if there ever was one. But there is a catch. Because of course there is.

The State of Muddy Hollows Play, part 2: Who The Fuck Is Robert Golob?

In Part Two of pengovsky playing catch-up (click here for Part 1), it is finally time to introduce Robert Golob. To outside observers, his name popped up suddenly in a series of opinion polls, scoring a cool fifteen-to-twenty percent from the get-go. And many people went “the fuck is going on in Muddy Hollows?”

Robert Golob, now former CEO of Gen-I, who upended political scene in Muddy Hollows. — Robert Golob (source)

In a nutshell, it is a function of a lot of people wanting someone, anyone, to sort out this fucking mess. Call it a reverse messiah complex. That is not to say that Robert Golob does not have his own agency and ambitions. Which he clearly does. But right now, he still lacks pretty much everything else. But the turntables….

Fearing Factional Split, Janša’s SDS Invokes Civil War and Spectre of Communism

SDS, the party of PM Janez Janša seems to be in a bit of a pickle. With its congress just around the corner, it started sounding alarm over a supposedly looming civil war and the spectre of communism haunting Slovenia (to paraphrase a certain German philosopher).

PM Janša's party is rallying troops and trying to avoid a factional split by warning against civil war and communism. — *Part of Branko Grim’s letter denying being lacklustre in the Cause. (source)*

As both readers of this blog are well aware, alarmism and fearmongering are par for the course for the Party and its Glorious Leader. Still, toying with Parteiverbot and internecine violence is a new level of increasingly beligerent rhetortic of Janša’s party. So, what gives?

One Letter, Six Prime Ministers and Half A Million Vaccine Doses

Someone please tell prime minister Janez Janša to stop writing letters. Every time he writes one he sets himself up for a fuck-up of epic (epidemic?) proportions. This time is no different. Last weekend, Janša co-authored a sharply-worded letter to European Commission and EU Council presidents. Therein he joined PMs of Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia and Bulgaria in complaining about delivery of Covid-19 vaccine doses, basically accusing Brussels of lack of solidarity.

Photo of letter by PMs of Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Latvia, asking for more fairness in vaccine distribution — First, there were five PMs. Then, there were six. But in Vienna, there were only four.

Fast forward a couple of days and PM Janša finds himself bitch-slapped by the European Commission, thrown under the bus by Viktor Órban, and in serious trouble at home for skipping on buying available vaccine doses. As a result the Glorious Leader had to change his story as he went along, walk-back his statements and side-step accusations to the point of reaching his daily 10,000 steps and 500 calories many times over.

Wither Hojs

What pengovsky first predicted about a month and a half ago finally happened on Tuesday: Aleš Hojs resigned as interior minister. Hopefully, the door won’t hit him on his way out. Or even if it did, this scribe couldn’t really give a flying fuck.

Interior minister Aleš Hojs (left) and police chief Bojan Travner, both freshly out of their jobs *(source)*

With Hojs’ resignation a period of internal affairs portfolio being headed by an abrasive, belligerent and uniquely incompetent politician comes to an early end. But while the move was apparently triggered by a police raid chez minister of economy and SMC leader Zdravko Počivalšek over his role in the PPE procurement snafu, the root causes of Hojs getting canned run deeper.