By: Bogdan Sajovic
The Freedom Party of the feathered electrogenius appears to be a magnet for a special breed of ill-mannered dimwits.
They have managed to drag the reputation of parliament so low that just when you think it has hit rock bottom, they surprise you again, sinking it even further, along with the level of debate. The latest record-holder in this descent is MP Miriam Bon Klajnšček, who not only addressed MP Aleksander Rebršek with rude familiarity but also snapped at him to “stop barking.”
Some say the MP has brought parliament down to the level of a pub brawl, but that is not quite accurate. If she had told someone at a bar to stop barking, she would likely have received the kind of beating her parents should have delivered long ago. Others were stunned that a former high school teacher could behave so primitively. Sadly, I am not even surprised, she is far from the only one.
I recall sitting in a café a few months after the euro was introduced, waiting for a friend. At the next table sat two elderly women, well-dressed, in fur coats. It turned out they were retired high school teachers. They were loudly cursing Janša’s government, and one of them concluded by saying that “those rotten bastards Janša and Bajuk robbed me of my hard-earned pension,” claiming she used to receive 96,000 tolars and now gets just under 500 euros. The other agreed, saying the bastards had robbed her too. For those who have forgotten: 500 euros was equivalent to 120,000 tolars.
The problem is not their delusions, the problem is that these two primitive, narrow-minded creatures spent thirty, thirty-five years teaching at a prestigious high school. That means they were educating, shaping, and influencing an entire generation of Slovenia’s future intellectual elite. And unfortunately, they are not exceptions. So, we should not be surprised by the narrow-mindedness and lack of manners in parliament. Or elsewhere…
