Janez Drnovšek
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| Janez Drnovšek | |
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| In office 22 December 2002 – 23 December 2007 |
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| Prime Minister | Anton Rop Janez Janša |
| Preceded by | Milan Kučan |
| Succeeded by | Danilo Türk |
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| In office May 14, 1992–May 3, 2000 November 17, 2000 – December 11, 2002 |
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| Preceded by | Lojze Peterle (1st term) Andrej Bajuk (2nd term) |
| Succeeded by | Andrej Bajuk (1st term) Anton Rop (2nd term) |
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| In office 15 May 1989 – 15 May 1990 |
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| Preceded by | Raif Dizdarević |
| Succeeded by | Borisav Jović |
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| In office 7 September 1989 – 15 May 1990 |
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| Preceded by | Robert Mugabe |
| Succeeded by | Stjepan Mesić |
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| Born | 17 May 1950 Celje, Slovenia, Yugoslavia |
| Died | 23 February 2008 (aged 57) Zaplana (near Vrhnika), Slovenia |
| Political party | League of Communists of Slovenia (until 1990), Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (1990-2006) |
| Spouse | Majda Drnovšek (divorced 1980) |
Janez Drnovšek (pronounced [janɛz dr̩nɒuʃɛk], (May 17, 1950 – February 23, 2008) was the President of Slovenia (2002-2007), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992-2002) and the first democratically elected President of Yugoslavia (1989-1990). He was born in Celje, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, today in Slovenia. He died on February 23, 2008 in Zaplana (near Vrhnika), Slovenia.
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[edit] Youth & early career
Young Janez was raised in the small town of Kisovec in the municipality of Zagorje ob Savi, where his father Viktor was the local mine chief and his mother Silva was a homemaker. Drnovšek graduated at the University of Ljubljana with a degree in economics in 1973. Meanwhile, he worked as an intern at a Le Havre bank. In 1975, at the age of 25, he became chief financial officer at SGP Beton Zagorje, a construction company. Two years later he became, for one year, an economic adviser at the Yugoslav embassy in Cairo, Egypt. He defended his master's thesis in 1981, and in 1986, he defended his Ph.D. dissertation in 1986 at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Maribor. In 1982, he became head of the local branch of Ljubljana Bank in his home region Zasavje (in central Slovenia). In 1986 he was chosen to be a delegate at the Slovenian Republic Assembly (parliament) and also the Chamber of Republics and Provinces of the Yugoslav parliament.
[edit] Membership in the Yugoslav presidency
In 1989 Stane Dolanc, the Slovenian representative to the collective presidency of Yugoslavia, retired. The Slovenian Communist Party, aware of upcoming democratisation, decided to organize elections between two candidates for the position. Drnovšek, until then rather unknown to the public, defeated Marko Bulc, the Party's preferred candidate. The Communist leaderships of other Yugoslav republics, refusing any democratic changes, did not agree with this new way of selecting the representative to the Collective Presidency, so the Slovenian Republic Parliament had to confirm the result of the elections. Drnovšek served as chairman of the Collective Presidency from 1989 until 1990. While he was chairman of the presidency, he was also chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and the commander of the Yugoslav People's Army. Until the collapse of the Communist regime he was an active member of the Communist Party. After the democratic changes in Slovenia, the country seceded from Yugoslavia. Following the Ten Day War, Drnovšek used his position in the Collective Presidency to help mediate the Brioni Agreement and to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal of Yugoslav army from Slovenia.
[edit] Prime Minister of Slovenia
In 1992, after a Government crisis in the DEMOS coalition, which had won the first democratic elections in Slovenia in 1990 and led the country to independence, Drnovšek became the second Prime Minister of independent Slovenia. He was chosen as a compromise candidate and an expert in economic policy and his bi-partisan government was supported both by the left and centrist wing of the dissolved DEMOS coalition (the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia and the Greens of Slovenia) and by two parties that derived from organizations of the former Communist regime (the Liberal Democratic Party and the Party of Democratic Reform).
Shortly afterwards, Drnovšek was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberalno demokratska stranka - LDS), the legal successor of Association of Socialist Youth of Slovenia (Zveza socialistične mladine Slovenije - ZSMS), the youth fraction of the Communist Party of Slovenia.
In 1992, the Liberal Democratic Party under Drnovšek's leadership won the parliamentary elections, but due to a high fragmentation of the popular vote had to ally itself with other parties in order to form a stable government. Despite a politically turbulent mandate (in 1994, the Social Democratic Party left the coalition after a government crisis), the Party gained votes in 1996, remaining the largest party in the government. Nevertheless, Drnovšek barely secured himself a third term in office after a failed attempt to ally himself with the chauvinistic Slovenian National Party. In 1997, the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia formed a coalition government with the populist Slovenian People's Party which finally enabled Drnovšek to serve a third term in office.
He headed the government until May 2000, when he stepped down due to disagreements with the Slovenian People's Party. After less than six months in opposition, Drnovšek returned to power in Autumn of 2000, after his party gained a clear victory in the parliamentary elections.
Drnovšek's governments guided Slovenia's political and economic reconstruction. He successfully tackled the twin tasks of reorienting Slovenia's trade away from the wreckage of the old Yugoslavia towards the West and replacing the ineffective Communist-era business model with more market-based mechanisms.
Unlike the other five former Yugoslav republics which were run for much of the 1990s by charismatic and frequently authoritarian presidents, Slovenia under Drnovšek's premiership quickly emerged from the break-up of the federation as a functioning parliamentary democracy. Drnovšek's political strategy was concentrated on broad coalitions, trancsending idological and programmatic divisions between parties.
Contrary to some other former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, the economic and social transformation in Slovenia pursued by Drnovšek's governments followed a gradualist approach. [1]
Drnovšek was a staunch supporter of Slovenia's entry in the European Union and NATO and was largely responsible for Slovenia's successful bid for membership in both of those organizations. As Prime minister, he was frequently active on foreign policy issues. On June 16th, 2001, he helped to arrange the first meeting of the U.S. President George W. Bush with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was held in the Upper Carniolan estate of Brdo pri Kranju. (Bush-Putin 2001)
In 2002, he ran for President of Slovenia, and was elected in the second round.
[edit] President of Slovenia and the change in lifestyle
His presidency was highly controversial. In the first three years in office, he rarely appeared in public, save for the most important official duties. In 2006, however, a change of style became visible. He launched several campaigns in foreign policy, such as a failed humanitarian mission to Darfur and a proposal for the solution of the political crisis in Kosovo. In January 30, 2006, he left the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. Shortly afterwards, he founded the Movement for Justice and Development and became its first president. He claimed this was not meant to be a political movement, but rather a wide initiative, aiming to "raise human consciousness and make the world a better place". On June 26, 2006, he announced that he would not be running for a second term in an interview on TV Slovenia. In the last year in office, he engaged in several open and harsh criticisms of the policy of the Prime Minister Janez Janša, accusing him of "proto-totalitarian tendencies". He became a blogger (Janez D ), signing his posts as "Janez D" and expressing opinions on various issues from foreign policy, environmentalism, human relationships, religion, animal rights and personal growth. In his last months in office, he withdrew to a reclusive life again, devoting his time to the Movement for Justice and Development and the popularization of his lifestyle and views.
In his later years, he started to regard politics as a forum for living his truth, saying we have a 'moral obligation' to help[citation needed], with frequent interventions in foreign political issues (such as the Kosovo and Darfur crises), and became increasingly frustrated by world leaders with a more pragmatic approach. Clashes with the foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel were frequent during this period.
During his time in office as the President of Slovenia, he wrote and published several books in spiritual philosophy, including Misli o življenju in zavedanju ("Thoughts on Life and Consciousness"), Zlate misli o življenju in zavedanju ("Golden Thoughts on Life and Consciousness"), Bistvo sveta ("The Essence of the World"), and his last one called Pogovori or Dialogues. According to his own accounts, it took him only two or three weeks to write each of his books, due to - in his words - "the higher consciousness" he was able to access.
Because of his new lifestyle and the content of his books and blogs, he was often regarded as an adherent of the New Age movement, although he rejected such a qualification as being too narrow. His lifestyle was a mixture of elements from various traditions: from the veganism of Hindu philosophy, the non-attachment of Buddhist philosophy, to the monkish traditions of Celtic Christianity. He also valued the indigeneous traditions of the world, being the only foreign dignatory at the inauguration of Evo Morales', the first native American president of Bolivia. He later hosted Bolivian ethnic musicians in the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana.
He revered the spirituality held within these traditions. He repeatedly claimed nature was his best cure, and he spent much time at his home in Zaplana. He died there on February 23, 2008, aged 57. His body was cremated shortly afterwards. He was buried with honors in a private memorial service in his native Zagorje ob Savi, along his parents.
[edit] Personal
He had a broad education and was fluent in six languages, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, English, Spanish, French and German.[2] He was divorced with one son, Jaša Drnovšek, who is a translator and journalist. In 2005, he found out about the existence of a daughter, Nana Forte, otherwise a renowned composer. [3] Drnovsek's favorite hobbies included jogging, tennis and cross country-skiing. He was also very fond of dogs.
[edit] Books by Drnovšek
- Pogovori (Conversations). Mladinska knjiga, 2007 (COBISS)
- Bistvo sveta (Essence of the world). Mladinska knjiga, 2006 (COBISS)
- Misli o življenju in zavedanju (Thoughts on life and awarness). Mladinska knjiga, 2006 (COBISS)
- Escape from Hell (published as e-book).
- El laberinto de los Balcanes. Edicciones B, 1999. (COBISS)
- Moja resnica : Jugoslavija 1989 - Slovenija 1991 (My truth). Mladinska knjiga, 1996. (COBISS)
[edit] External links
- Biography
- Site of the President of the Republic of Slovenia
- President's vision for the future of Slovenia
- Site of the former Slovenian Prime Minister
- Movement for Justice and Development
- "All hail the mystic President", by Martin Fletcher, The Times, November 15, 2007
- [1] Obituary from the Independent--a reference to his life and work. The obituary erroneously stated the President was married.
- Council of Europe site for Dr Janez Drnovsek, including links to most of his articles and other written works
[edit] References
- ^ "Janez Drnovsek: Slovenian president who achieved membership of the EU and Nato for the former Yugoslav republic" The Independent Feb 25th 2008
- ^ Biography of Janez Drnovšek, office of the former President of the Republic of Slovenia
- ^ "Drnovšek o načrtih in svoji hčerki"[clarify]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Raif Dizdarević |
Chairman of the Collective Presidency of Yugoslavia May 15, 1989–May 15, 1990 |
Succeeded by Borisav Jović |
| Preceded by Robert Mugabe |
Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement 1989-1990 |
Succeeded by Stjepan Mesić |
| Preceded by Lojze Peterle |
Prime Minister of Slovenia May 14, 1992–May 3, 2000 |
Succeeded by Andrej Bajuk |
| Preceded by Andrej Bajuk |
Prime Minister of Slovenia November 17, 2000–December 11, 2002 |
Succeeded by Anton Rop |
| Preceded by Milan Kučan |
President of Slovenia December 22, 2002–December 23, 2007 |
Succeeded by Danilo Türk |
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