By: Gašper Blažič
In 2021, one of my acquaintances bought a slightly used VW Tiguan. Last year, he needed money, supposedly for another investment. To my surprise, he explained to me that he sold the car for practically the same amount he bought it for. This may seem illogical to many, as the price of a used car usually drops in two years. However, he found a buyer who was willing to pay that amount for the car. You could say this is an example of an excellent deal, as my acquaintance used his car for two years without suffering any financial loss (except for regular expenses).
So, did my acquaintance commit a crime with this deal? If you asked dogmatic socialists, they would agree, provided that my acquaintance is a class enemy. If they were involved in the deal themselves, they would find it normal. But if someone they dislike and who is not “one of theirs” does it, they consider it a crime. What is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to an ox, the ancient Romans used to say. It is as simple as that.
It started in 2011
This also brings us to the core problem of the Trenta case. It is not about some new affair, but about an artificially maintained scandal that the transitional left first used before the parliamentary elections in 2011. It was the first preliminary election in Slovenia due to the collapse of Pahor’s coalition after Golobič’s Zares party left. As is known, a group of “famous Slovenians” (including Milan Kučan) rushed to the Ljubljana Magistrate, where they begged Mayor Zoran Janković to engage on the national level. This led to the creation of the Positive Slovenia party from Janković’s list, which quickly gained support from all mainstream media. It was presented as a much-needed refreshment in Slovenian politics, something new. They claimed that Janković, a successful mayor of the Slovenian capital, could also “fix” the whole of Slovenia.
But the main motive for the dog-and-pony show at the Ljubljana City Hall was to prevent SDS from winning the elections. Due to the collapse of Pahor’s government, the polls again showed SDS in the lead. However, the activation of the “new face” party, which included many old acquaintances from LDS and Zares, was not enough. Nor was the formation of the “centrist” Civic List. The godfathers needed a scandal to lower the ratings of the largest opposition party – of course, in such a way that the blows hit its leader, Janez Janša (who is also an experienced climber and knows well what storms mean in the high mountains). As described in the Bible: “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.”
And what happened? The godfathers of the deep state already then brought to the media the story of Janša’s allegedly fraudulent land deal, which allegedly made it easier for him to obtain a luxury apartment in Ljubljana. This affair was extensively reported by then-journalist, now MP, Mojca Pašek Šetinc, likely with the help of her husband, Mile Šetinc, a well-known lobbyist and formerly influential figure from LDS member. This was a strong enough combination to “scalp” SDS in the elections and bring Janković’s “positive” people to the top. But it was not enough to prevent Janez Janša from being reappointed as prime minister, after it turned out that Janković’s coalition negotiations were a fiasco. The plan for the “prince from Saraorci” to become Slovenia’s prime minister thus fell apart, and the other parties did not wait but formed a “crisis exit coalition”. Janez Janša thus unexpectedly became prime minister for the second time. The war of the leftist “civil society” began for the second time, symbolised by the burning of a double bass on the Slovenian cultural holiday. And a month earlier, when the government had not yet been formed, there was raging in Dražgoše. Because the then American ambassador in Ljubljana, of Sicilian origin, Joseph A. Mussomeli, expressed his country’s interests too loudly, which almost drove then-president Danilo Türk crazy.
“Klemenčičing” and “viranting” in 2013
Then came the fateful January 2013 and the new “recycling” of Trenta. Goran Klemenčič, who shortly before had succeeded the famous deep-state operative Drago Kos at the helm of the anti-corruption commission, used the Trenta case as “corpus delicti” to allegedly prove Janša’s corruption. There was also a change in attitude towards Janković, as the godfathers had already written him off as a viable option for forming a government and made him a collateral victim to make the CPC report appear more impartial – claiming that CPC did not favour any political option. Well, quite a poor consolation, since the coalition parties Erjavec’s DeSUS and Virant’s DL took the CPC report, which was later annulled by the court, seriously. They said that if Janša did not resign and make room for another candidate, they would leave the coalition. In the meantime, Janković also temporarily and tactically stepped down from the top of PS and handed over the leadership to MP and former Ministry of Finance official Alenka Bratušek. The way to a new coalition was thus opened, and a week after the election of the current pope, a new government was sworn in under her leadership. The later conviction of photographer Jani Božič only confirmed that this act was agreed upon with the government in the background, as the congratulatory message was received before the vote announcement. “Viranting” then quickly ended, and we could only hold on to our wallets. Well, today, neither Gregor Virant nor Karl Erjavec is in politics anymore.
Trenta into the drawer, Patria to the forefront
The Trenta affair then temporarily faded into oblivion because the godfathers preferred to activate the Patria affair, which was triggered around the same time, during the first half of the first Janša government’s term, when an unexpected turnaround occurred in the tender for the purchase of eight-wheelers. If the godfathers thought they would once again easily push through a new deal for Sistemska tehnika, they were mistaken. The decision initially reportedly shocked even many in SDS, and the media quickly began to revive the conspiracy theory that such an outcome of the tender could not have happened without corruption in the background. Well, at least in the early years, the mainstream media “harassed” the then Defence Minister Karl Erjavec because of the choice of Patria. Then a reversal followed: Erjavec was acquitted in court, but Janša was sent to prison by the Popit–Bavcon–Masleša judiciary, allegedly receiving a bribe promise at an unknown place, time, and manner. And as we could have expected, the Patria affair also fell through. And so, they could once again take Trenta out of the drawer, which again became part of a well-worn tactic with a clear purpose: to remove Janša from politics before the next elections, thus bringing SDS to its knees and presenting it with a choice: abandon the leader, and you will survive without consequences. The carrot and stick approach. The godfathers have a good reason for this since the prime minister and leader of the instant-freedom fighters, Robert Golob, has shown himself to be an “authentic fool” (according to Vasko Simoniti) and practically has no chance of becoming prime minister in the next elections.
Will we become the European Venezuela?
I will not spend too many words on how misplaced it is to label a perfectly legal business transaction, such as the sale of a plot of land, as criminal and corrupt. The criminal code clearly defines what constitutes fraud in such transactions. According to the logic of the indictment, any deal where someone gets more for what they sold than they paid would be considered criminal. This literally means the criminalisation of the free market. And mind you, this is happening in Slovenia in the 21st century, within the EU! Do we even realise what a cesspool our country will be considered in the international environment if the Trenta construct succeeds?? Our country is already an extremely unfavourable economic environment for investors, both domestic and foreign. This means an irreversible path towards becoming the European Venezuela.
The godfathers want to “shear the sheep”
The Trenta affair has a very clear purpose, but it is not so much about maintaining the myth of “corrupt Janša” in public. It is mainly about the desire to “shear the sheep” – read: “frizzing” other unstable politicians on the right, especially Matej Tonin. This also means effectively preventing any attempt to unite parties in the right or spring camp. They say, we will not cooperate with SDS as long as it is led by Janša! The purpose of this affair is also to trigger the appropriate psychological response from SDS supporters, which could create a significant rift between the “core” of SDS and all those undecided voters who might potentially vote for this party. Ultimately, this would mean that public opinion spin doctors would limit SDS growth (e.g., to no more than 25 percent or a maximum of 300,000 votes) while simultaneously supporting the rise of some new instant party, as they did with Svoboda. The question is whether the Slovenian public is really prepared, as it has been so many times, to go on the ice again and allow another pitiful experiment with our country at the expense of a goat’s judgment in the Alpine Augean stables. If we are really ready to go on the ice again, we are truly a pitiable nation that does not deserve its own country.