Janez Drnovšek

Janez Drnovšek
Janez Drnovšek
2nd President of Slovenia
In office
22 December 2002 – 23 December 2007
Prime Minister Anton Rop
Janez Janša
Preceded by Milan Kučan
Succeeded by Danilo Türk
12th President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia
In office
15 May 1989 – 15 May 1990
Prime Minister Ante Marković
Preceded by Raif Dizdarević
Succeeded by Borisav Jović
2nd, 4th Prime Minister of Slovenia
In office
14 May 1992 – 3 May 2000
President Milan Kučan
Preceded by Lojze Peterle
Succeeded by Andrej Bajuk
In office
17 November 2000 – 11 December 2002
President Milan Kučan
Preceded by Andrej Bajuk
Succeeded by Anton Rop
11th Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement
In office
7 September 1989 – 15 May 1990
Preceded by Robert Mugabe
Succeeded by Borisav Jović
Personal details
Born 17 May 1950(1950-05-17)
Celje, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia)
Died 23 February 2008(2008-02-23) (aged 57)
Zaplana, Slovenia
Political party Movement for Justice and Development (2006–2008)
Other political
affiliations
League of Communists (Before 1990)
Liberal Democracy (1990–2006)
Spouse(s) Majda Drnovšek (Divorced 1980)
Alma mater University of Ljubljana
University of Maribor
Signature

Janez Drnovšek (pronounced [janɛz dr̩nɒuʃɛk]; 17 May 1950 – 23 February 2008) was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992–2002) and President of Slovenia (2002–2007). He was born in Celje, Slovenia, then the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. He died on February 23, 2008 in Zaplana.

Contents

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 of the Central Sava Valley (Slovene: 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.

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 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.

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. His bi-partisan government was supported both by the left and centrist wing of the dissolved DEMOS coalition (the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia, the Democratic Party and the Greens of Slovenia) and by three parties that derived from organizations of the former Communist regime (the Liberal Democratic Party, the Party of Democratic Reform and the Socialist Party of Slovenia).[1]

Shortly afterwards, Drnovšek was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberalno demokratska stranka - LDS), the legal successor of the 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 of Slovenia left the coalition), 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 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, transcending 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.[2]

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 16, 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, defeating the center right candidate Barbara Brezigar.

Drnovšek's Governments 1992–2002

Prime Minister
  • Janez Drnovšek
Vice President of Government
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Justice
Minister of Defence
Minister of Finance
Minister of Interior
  • (1992–1993): Igor Bavčar (Democratic Party)
  • (1993–1994): Ivo Bizjak (Slovene Christian Democrats)
  • (1994–1997): Andrej Šter (Slovene Christian Democrats)
  • (1997–1999): Mirko Bandelj (Liberal Democracy of Slovenia)
  • (1999–2000): Borut Šuklje (Liberal Democracy of Slovenia)
  • (2000–2002): Rado Bohinc (United List of Social Democrats)
Minister of Education
Minister of Culture
  • (1992–1993): Borut Šuklje (Socialist Party of Slovenia)
  • (1993–1996): Sergij Peljhan (United List of Social Democrats)
  • (1996–1997): Janez Dular (Slovene Christian Democrats)
  • (1997–2000): Jožef Školč (Liberal Democracy of Slovenia)
  • (2000–2002): Andreja Rihter (United List of Social Democrats)
Minister of Welfare
  • (1992–1994): Jožica Puhar (United List of Social Democrats)
  • (1994–1997): Rina Klinar (United List of Social Democrats)
  • (1997–2000): Anton Rop (Liberal Democracy of Slovenia)
  • (2000–2002): Vlado Dimovski (United List of Social Democrats)
Minister of Environment

President of Slovenia and the change in lifestyle

Drnovšek's 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. On 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.

Conflict with the Government

The 2004 legislative election brought further changes and a political swing to the right. Janez Janša, the leader of a right-wing coalition, formed the new government. In Slovenia, this was the first time after 1992 that the President and the Prime Minister had represented opposing political factions for more than a few months. Between 2002 and 2004, the relationship between President Drnovšek and Janez Janša, then leader of the opposition, were considered more than good[3] and in the first year of cohabitation, no major problems arose.

In the beginning of his term, Drnovšek, who was ill with cancer, stayed out of public view. When he reemerged in late 2005 he had already changed his lifestyle: he had become a vegan, moved out of the capital into the countryside, and withdrew from party politics completely, ending his already frozen membership in the Liberal Democracy. Drnovšek's new approach to politics prompted one political commentator to nickname him "Slovenia's Gandhi".[4][5]

The relationship between Drnovšek and the government quickly became tense. Disagreements began with Drnovšek's initiatives in foreign politics, aimed at solving major foreign conflicts, including those in Darfur and Kosovo.[5] Initially, these initiatives were initially not openly opposed by the Prime Minister, but were criticized by the foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel,[6] Drnovšek's former collaborator and close political ally until 2004.[7] A major clash between the two happened in Summer 2006, when disagreement arose over Drnovšek's attempt to intervene in the Darfur conflict.[8] The disagreements moved from issues of domestic politics in October 2006, when Drnovšek publicly criticised the treatment of the Strojans, a Roma family whose neighborhood had forced them to relocate, which in turn had subjected them to police supervision and limitation of movement.[4] The disagreements however escalated when the parliamentary majority repeatedly rejected President's candidates for the Governor of the Bank of Slovenia, beginning with the rejection of incumbent Mitja Gaspari.[9] The friction continued over the appointment of other state official nominees, including Constitutional Court judges. Although the President's political support suffered after his personal transformation, the polls nevertheless showed public backing of the President against an increasingly unpopular Government.[5][10] The tension reached its height in May 2007, when the newly appointed director of the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency Matjaž Šinkovec unclassified several documents from the period before 2004, revealing, among other, that Drnovšek had used secret service funds for personal purposes between 2002 and 2004. The President reacted with a harsh criticism of the government's policies, accusing the ruling coalition of abusing its power for personal delegitimations[11] and labeled the Prime Minister as "the leader of the negative guys"[12]

In the last months in office, Drnovšek continued his attacks on Prime Minister Janez Janša, who mostly remained silent on the issue. Drnovšek accused Janša of "fostering 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.

Lifestyle changes

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.

His lifestyle was a mixture of elements from various traditions, including Hindu religious thought and the non-attachment of Buddhist philosophy. He also valued the indigenous traditions of the world. For example, he was present at the inauguration of Evo Morales, the first native American president of Bolivia, and later hosted Bolivian ethnic musicians in the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana. After his diagnosis, Drnovšek became a vegan, and claims that this greatly improved his health.[13]

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.

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.

Personal

Drnovšek was fluent in six languages, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, English, Spanish, French and German.[14] 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.[15] Drnovšek's favorite hobbies included jogging, tennis and cross country-skiing.

Books by Drnovšek

  • Pogovori (Conversations). Mladinska knjiga, 2007 COBISS 233261568
  • Bistvo sveta (Essence of the world). Mladinska knjiga, 2006 COBISS 229734912
  • Misli o življenju in zavedanju (Thoughts on life and awareness). Mladinska knjiga, 2006 COBISS 226607872
  • Escape from Hell (published as e-book).
  • El laberinto de los Balcanes. Edicciones B, 1999. COBISS 104335360
  • Moja resnica : Jugoslavija 1989 - Slovenija 1991 (My truth). Mladinska knjiga, 1996.

COBISS 58078720

References

  1. ^ [1][dead link]
  2. ^ "Janez Drnovsek: Slovenian president who achieved membership of the EU and Nato for the former Yugoslav republic" The Independent Feb 25th 2008
  3. ^ "Tednik, številka 28, Iskalci vizije". Mladina.Si. 2003-07-14. http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200328/clanek/konvencija/index.print.html-l2. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  4. ^ a b Wood, Nicholas (2006-09-09). "Slovenian President Finds Peace and Wants to Share It". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/09/world/europe/09drnovsek.html. Retrieved 2008-09-05. 
  5. ^ a b c Fletcher, Martin (2007-11-15). "All hail the mystic President". London: Times Online. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article2870371.ece. Retrieved 2008-09-05. 
  6. ^ "Tednik, številka 44, Kosovska bitka: Drnovšek proti Ruplu". Mladina.Si. http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200544/clanek/slo--zunanja_politika-ali_h_zerdin/. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  7. ^ "Rop: Rupel se je odločil po svoje". 24ur.com. 2004-06-26. http://24ur.com/novice/slovenija/rop-rupel-se-je-odlocil-po-svoje.html?ar=. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  8. ^ "Rupel kritičen do Drnovškovega urada". Delo.si. 2006-08-18. http://www.delo.si/clanek/o154553. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  9. ^ "Gaspari Three Votes Short of Winning Second Term". Government communication office. 2007-02-06. http://www.ukom.gov.si/eng/slovenia/publications/slovenia-news/4274/4288/. Retrieved 2008-09-05. [dead link]
  10. ^ "Lepotica in zver" (in Slovene). Mladina. http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200722/clanek/slo-tema--jure_trampus/. Retrieved 2008-09-05. 
  11. ^ "'Vlada me skuša zlomiti'". 24ur.com. http://24ur.com/novice/slovenija/vlada-me-skusa-zlomiti.html. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  12. ^ Tekst: Rok Praprotnik (2008-03-21). "Obletnica Dnevnikovega razkritja: Po letu dni afera Sova še vedno brez epiloga | Dnevnik". Dnevnik.si. http://www.dnevnik.si/novice/slovenija/306840. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  13. ^ Janez Drnovsek: Slovenian president who achieved membership of the EU and Nato for the former Yugoslav republic 25 February 2008, from The Independent, accessed 12 February 2009.
  14. ^ Biography of Janez Drnovšek, office of the former President of the Republic of Slovenia
  15. ^ "Drnovšek o načrtih in svoji hčerki"[clarification needed]

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Raif Dizdarević
President of the Presidency of SFR Yugoslavia
1989–1990
Succeeded by
Borisav Jović
Preceded by
Milan Kučan
President of Slovenia
2002–2007
Succeeded by
Danilo Türk
Preceded by
Lojze Peterle
Prime Minister of Slovenia
1992–2000
Succeeded by
Andrej Bajuk
Preceded by
Andrej Bajuk
Prime Minister of Slovenia
2000–2002
Succeeded by
Anton Rop
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Robert Mugabe
Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement
1989–1990
Succeeded by
Borisav Jović
Party political offices
Preceded by
Jožef Školč
President of Liberal Democracy
1992–2002
Succeeded by
Anton Rop

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Janez Drnovsek — Janez Drnovšek, 2004 Janez Drnovšek ([janɛz dərnˈɒuʃɛk]; * 17. Mai 1950 in Celje, Jugoslawien, heute Slowenien; † 23. Februar 2008 in Zaplana, bei Vrhnika [1]) war ein sl …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Janez Drnovšek — 2.° Presidente de la Republica de Eslovenia …   Wikipedia Español

  • Janez Drnovšek — Mandats 2e président de la République de Slovénie 22 décemb …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Janez Drnovsek — Janez Drnovšek Janez Drnovšek 2e président de la République de Slovénie …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Janez Drnovšek — Janez Drnovšek, 2004 Janez Drnovšek ([jˈanɛz dərnˈɔuʃɛk]; * 17. Mai 1950 in Celje, SR Slowenien, Jugoslawien; † 23. Februar 2008 in Zaplana, bei Vrhnika …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Janez Drnovsek — …   Википедия

  • Janez Drnovšek — …   Википедия

  • Drnovsek — Janez Drnovšek, 2004 Janez Drnovšek ([janɛz dərnˈɒuʃɛk]; * 17. Mai 1950 in Celje, Jugoslawien, heute Slowenien; † 23. Februar 2008 in Zaplana, bei Vrhnika [1]) war ein sl …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Drnovšek — Janez Drnovšek, 2004 Janez Drnovšek ([janɛz dərnˈɒuʃɛk]; * 17. Mai 1950 in Celje, Jugoslawien, heute Slowenien; † 23. Februar 2008 in Zaplana, bei Vrhnika [1]) war ein sl …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Janez Jansa — Janez Janša Janez Janša ([ˈjaːnɛz ˈjaˑnʃɐ]; offiziell Ivan [ Iːvan] Janša * 17. September 1958 in Ljubljana) ist ein slowenischer Politiker und seit 1995 Vorsitzender der Slowenischen Demokratischen Partei (SD …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”