By: Gašper Blažič
The sentence in the title probably seems familiar to you. It is one of the most bizarre statements from 2017, that is, eight years ago. It was spoken, or written, by then‑judge Karmen Erčulj. And with it she revealed quite a lot. More about herself and Slovenian justice than about Zoran Janković himself.
Slovenia has been following Zoran Janković as a politician for almost twenty years, and as a public figure for at least a few years longer. In 1997 he became president of the management board of Mercator, where he had already been employed for thirteen years. In that position he succeeded Kazimir Živko Pregl, deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia (under Ante Marković) between 1989 and 1991, while Pregl in 1993 had succeeded the legendary Miran Goslar, considered the father of Mercator. But “Zoki” had already appeared three years before reaching the top of Mercator, as a member of a consultative body of the then‑ruling LDS. That was in 1994, the year of “Depala vas,” though he had been closely connected with Milan Kučan much earlier, including through the Olimpija sports club. Perhaps these ties and acquaintances helped ensure that Janković’s younger son (Jure) at the end of the 1990s became Slovenia’s most notorious high‑school graduate, since despite failing an exam he was allowed, as a “special exception,” to take the finals in the regular spring session. The “Janković affair” became the reason why then‑LDS education minister Slavko Gaber found himself “on the spit.” The opposition could not remove him, but later, in the shadow of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s visit to Slovenia, he resigned. Under Prime Minister Anton Rop he returned to the education ministry, which today is called the Ministry of Education and is led by one of the “Gaber’s men,” Vinko Logaj.
In any case, the finals scandal, which already then, more than a quarter century ago, revealed systemic corruption in education, was quickly forgotten, while “Papa Zoran” built his empire and in 2004 joined Kučan’s Forum 21. Two years later, after finishing his leadership of Mercator, he entered politics and was elected mayor of Ljubljana for the first time. He interrupted his mayoral tenure only once: in 2011 and 2012, when, after the “procession” of well‑known Slovenians to the city hall, he founded Positive Slovenia and entered national politics, of course with the aim of becoming prime minister and the most influential political figure in the country. He almost succeeded, since the “party of new faces,” with numerous cadres from the defunct LDS and aided by media inflation of the Trenta affair, became the leading party.
But Janković’s coalition negotiations collapsed ingloriously, and it seemed even the political underground realised that with “Zoki” they would not gain much. In the meantime the second Janša government “happened,” and with it, as we were already used to, the “uprising of the machines.” To cut short the idyll, they engaged CPC president Goran Klemenčič, who launched a new phase of the Trenta affair. In his report he also, more in passing, criticised Janković, who in any case had no ambition to sit in parliament. He returned to city hall. It was clear that from an agenda aimed mainly against Janša’s government, Janković did not emerge unscathed. For the deep state he was, despite his proverbial Byzantine cunning, simply too brutal and insufficiently diplomatic. Even foreign intelligence services noticed this, so it is no surprise that after those elections even U.S. ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli got involved, one of the few American diplomats Slovenians truly remember. Leftists had him “in their stomach,” since he received a public rebuke almost directly from Dražgoše.
Zoran’s tactical retreat from the top of Positive Slovenia was thus a small step back and also recognition that national politics could be “run” from Ljubljana’s city hall. Later both he and Gregor Golobič buried their parties: Zares and Positive Slovenia. Janković tried to force his way back, but caused a split and the departure of then‑prime minister Alenka Bratušek, who went into “hibernation” with her small personal party. Until it merged with the “Freedom Movement,” which absorbed cadres from LDS, Zares, and Positive Slovenia. Marjan Šarec also joined with his party. Thus they became, as the grotesque mutant Seth Brundle from the film The Fly would say, “one happy family.” The “consolidation” succeeded: previously fragmented pieces gathered under one umbrella, officially carried by Robert Golob, the “miracle boy” from Goriška, who had in the past been a member of LDS, Positive Slovenia, etc. Unofficially, however … Zoran. Who, despite scandals, the pharmacist being only the tip of the iceberg, remains untouchable. Because he is Janša’s opponent, they say. And everyone noticed that the Ljubljana mayor is the only one Golob does not dare contradict. Even more: the now‑fallen health minister Danijel Bešič Loredan had to publicly apologise to the mayor, humiliating himself before the public, yet Janković and Golob still tossed him aside. Perhaps precisely because he showed he had no backbone?
Perhaps it is a lucky coincidence for Slovenia that Janković’s and Golob’s brakes began to fail right in the pre‑election finale. I do not mean only their openly meeting in a bar owned by a Balkan fighter nicknamed “Čelavi” (possible links between the “Balkan man” and the burning of a Spar warehouse I leave aside), but also Janković’s open brutality. Last week he showed how he imagines media freedom. More precisely: he showed why the top of “depoliticised” RTVS undertook the liquidation of one of the few shows that stood out from the SZDL‑style “ironing” of wrinkled government shirts. Officially, Tarča show will only be reshaped so it is no longer so “sensationalist,” but that is just cellophane offered by the rulers to a restless public.
But this is not the first time: in 2009 Golobič’s people arranged the liquidation of Trenja show, a few years later Pogledi Slovenije show “fell” because its creators caught then‑prime minister Alenka Bratušek in a lie. Apparently Janković’s letter to RTVS president Natalija Gorščak, a leftist activist who withdrew from Eurovision in protest against Israel’s alleged genocide of Palestinians, had an effect. He did not appear on Tarča, but the next day, a few hours after being questioned at the C0 canal inquiry commission, he got a slot on Odmevi show and practically shredded (absent) Erika Žnidaršič in front of her nodding colleague Tanja Starič. “Leave my sons alone, they are not public figures,” he said. Oh, Zoki, after all that has been revealed about them? And I do not mean only Jure’s finals and his later threats to journalist Jaka Elikan (“Go kill him!”), who a few years ago came to work at RTV, then was elegantly removed by the “depoliticisers” in a similar way as Valentina Areh. Apparently not by chance, since Elikan was too little anti‑Janša to be “nobody’s servant,” so they hung on him an accusation of sexual harassment.
And note: the very same evening, after appearing on Odmevi show, “Papa Zoran” together with his vassal Robert Golob received ovations from employees of the Ljubljana holding company. For the Christmas bonus, which has caused many public institutions major problems, since they must “scrape it together” from the existing budget. And of course, Zoki and Robi also told employees to go vote, otherwise there will be no more bonuses. Because “the other one” (we know who) will abolish them.
So Judge Karmen was actually right: our Zoki does have something. He is not a bearer of Putin’s decoration for nothing. But if I think about it, he is in a way useful. He is not the type of man who swears by “the emperor’s new clothes.” He shows the public clearly his and Golob’s “nakedness.” Under his (that is, Janković’s) leadership the state has reached a stage where the last masks of democracy are falling and Putin’s imitators are stepping onto the stage. That is what “our Zoki” has: a Byzantine‑Kremlin style of ruling. From the shadows.