Janez Drnovšek
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Janez Drnovšek | |
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| 2nd President of the Republic of Slovenia | |
| In office 22 December 2002 – 23 December 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Milan Kučan |
| Succeeded by | Danilo Türk |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 May 1950 Celje, Slovenia, Yugoslavia |
| Died | 23 February 2008 (aged 57) Zaplana (near Vrhnika), Slovenia |
Janez Drnovšek (IPA: [janɛz dr̩nɒuʃɛk], (May 17 1950 - February 23 2008) was the President of Slovenia (2002-2007), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992-2002) and president of Yugoslavia (1989-1990). He was born in Celje, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, today in Slovenia.
Early career
Drnovšek graduated at the University of Ljubljana with a degree in economics in 1973, and defended his master's thesis in 1981. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation in 1986. Meanwhile he worked at a construction company, then at a bank branch in his home region Zasavje (in central Slovenia) and also one year as an economic adviser at the Yugoslav embassy in Cairo, Egypt. 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.
He had a broad education and was fluent in six languages.
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. Soon after the democratisation, Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia, but Drnovšek continued his political career.
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 was a stunch supporter of Slovenia's entry in the European Union and NATO. As Prime minister, he was frequently active in 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 in Brdo pri Kranju.
In 2002, he ran for President of Slovenia, and was elected in the second round.
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 the last months in office, he withdrew to a recluse life again, devoting his time to the popularization of strict vegetarianism, alternative medicine and spiritual philosophy.
In the last years of his life, he started to regard politics as a forum for living his truth[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.
Drnovšek suffered from cancer for at least the last eight years of his life. He had a cancerous kidney removed in 1999 and recently stated that doctors discovered other cancerous growths in 2001. He later abandoned conventional treatment for his disease[1] and changed his lifestyle, moving from Ljubljana to a house in Inner Carniola (Zaplana), about half an hours drive from the capital. Among other things, he became a vegan[2] and lived on a raw and very simple diet, enjoying fresh fruit and drinking water.
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"), and 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 to 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.
Death
Janez Drnovšek died on February 23 2008 at his home in Zaplana. His office gave no cause of death, but he was suffering from liver and lung cancer.
External links
- Biography
- Site of the President of the Republic 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
References
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| Presidents of the Presidency of SR Slovenia (1974–90) | |
| Presidents of Slovenia (1990–present) | |
| Prime Ministers / Presidents of the Executive Council of SR Slovenia (1945–1990) | |
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| Prime Ministers of Slovenia (1990–present) | |
