Notes On Slovenian Recognition of Palestine (Part 6, Finale)

After a day of tense politics, procedural manoeuvering in the parliament and dubious life choices in general, Slovenia last night recognised the State of Palestine.

Flag of Palestine was raised in front of the foreign ministry as Slovenia established formal diplomatic relations, despite Janez Janša doing everything to stop the vote in the parliament.
Palestinian flag was raised in front of the foreign ministry

Predictably, however, the more the debate dragged on, the less it was about Palestine and the more it was becoming about domestic politics, electoral soundbites and pure brinkmanship.

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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.

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Muddy Hollows Seats A New Parliament

Slovenian parliament constitutes for a new term today, kicking off a power-transfer process at the end of which Janez Janša will be looking at the PM’s office from the outside in. When that milestone is reached, Robert Golob of Gibanje Svoboda party will become the tenth person in history with an Outlook footer that says “Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia”.

Inaugural session of the new Slovenian parliament. All 90 MPs were present as were many onlookers. President Pahor opened the new parliament.
New parliament in session (photo: Matija Sušnik/National Assembly)

Golob spent the past weeks busily getting all of his ducks in a row. He concluded a coalition agreement with Tanja Fajon of SD and Luka Mesec of Levica. In the process he probably saved the former’s ass and gave the latter a chance of a lifetime. Somewhat surprisingly, SAB and LMŠ leaders Alenka Bratušek and Marjan Šarec get to play along, too.

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