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A poster for Glas Zensk (Female Voice), a party which took 1% of the vote.
Only one in five Slovenian voters bothered to cast a ballot in yesterday’s European Parliamentary Elections. The nightly news suggested that “bad weather” had something to do with the low turnout. Then again, when it’s sunny and bright you also hear that the “good weather” distracted people from voting. And since Slovenia generally boasts a strong voter turnout, I would guess that the real reason people didn’t show up was because they don’t give a damn.
I don’t blame them. Most Slovenes seem to understand the EU well enough to know that the Parliament is a minor player that meddles around in non-issues like animal welfare and consumer protection and can’t even initiate legislation. Even the decisions it’s allowed to decide on are supplied by the European Commission and then tempered by the Council of Ministers.
The great Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek once wrote:
It is a well-known fact that the Close the Door button in most elevators is a totally inoperative placebo, placed there just to give people the impression they are somehow contributing to the speed of the elevator journey—whereas in fact, when we push this button, the door closes in exactly the same time as when we simply pressed the floor button. This extreme case of fake participation is an appropriate metaphor for the role accorded citizens in our ‘postmodern’ political process.
At any rate, here’s what the seven Slovenes entering the European Parliament will receive:
* 4000 Euros/month (quadruple the average salary in Slovenia)
* 150,000 Euros/year for office expenses, which they are not obliged to account for
* Free flights home (they are reimbursed for full-price air travel even if they fly by budget airline)
(source)
Congrats to the winners. Hooray for the European Parliament.
Comments
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The poster for the Female Voice has a real Socialist Realist feel.
Indeed it does. The great irony is that it was originally an American propaganda poster from the Second World War.
Is there discussion in Slovenia on whether Lojze Peterle has a chance to become president of the EU commission? Seems as qualified as the other candidates to me, plus being from a new member country which would have some charm.
Hi Georg: The newspapers are indeed talking about Peterle, but his chances seem pretty slim. He lacks the name recognition that many of his rivals have… although I suppose he could surprise us.
Zizek might be “the great Slovenian philosopher” but for such a person to be an unofficial ideologist of a ruling political party in a country is a bit weird.
Read: Rebecca Mead, The Marx Brother, on Google
A superbly written article about Zizek.
A.
I`ve read the article about Zizek once again. I`ve realised that it is possible that he isn`t joking at all (as Western intellectuals beleive and laugh as they listen to his lectures sparkling with wit).
He knows that they have to be tough and unsentimental - like him when he enjoyed a strawberry cake and wached the Soviet tanks against demonstrators in Prague 1968.
They have to be lying and deceptive - like a pervert educating small girls.
They need a Slovenian strong man, a Slovenian Stalin, in his opinion Golobic is the right person.
His admiration for Mussolini is significant too. They have to stay in power on and on, at all costs. To be in power is such fun!
But there is an important mission too (since the old Party is behind them): to control Slovenia to prevent the ugly truth (with NAMES!) come out and leak into the world.
Which could explain why the Slovenian governmet pays him for “doing nothing”.
Andreja