Drnovšek was born inCelje and was raised in the small town ofKisovec in the Municipality ofZagorje ob Savi, where his father Viktor (1923–2006) was the local mine chief and his mother Silva (1921–1978) was a homemaker. Drnovšek graduated from theUniversity of Ljubljana with a degree in economics in 1973.
Meanwhile, he worked as an intern at aLe 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 theYugoslavembassy inCairo.
He defended his master's thesis in 1981 and in 1986 he defended his dissertation at the Faculty of Economics and Business at theUniversity of Maribor. In 1983, he became head of the local branch of Ljubljana Bank in his home region of theCentral Sava Valley 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.
In 1989,Stane Dolanc, theSlovenian representative to the collectivepresidency of Yugoslavia, retired. TheLeague of Communists of Slovenia, aware of upcoming democratisation, decided to organize elections between two candidates for the position. Drnovšek, until then rather unknown to the public, defeatedMarko 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 1989–90. While he was chairman of the presidency, he was also chairman of theNon-Aligned Movement and the commander of theYugoslav People's Army. In the capacity of the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement Drnovšek notably opened the9th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement inBelgrade with the speech inSlovenian language.[3]
Until the end of communist rule he was an active member of the Communist Party. After the democratic changes in Slovenia, the country seceded from Yugoslavia. Following theTen Day War, Drnovšek used his position in the collective presidency to help mediate theBrioni Agreement and to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal of the Yugoslav army from Slovenia.
In 1992, after a Government crisis in theDEMOS coalition, which had won the first democratic elections in Slovenia in 1990 and led the country to independence, Drnovšek became the secondPrime Minister of independent Slovenia. He was chosen as a compromise candidate and an expert in economic policy.
Shortly afterwards, Drnovšek was elected president of theLiberal 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 theCommunist 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, theSocial 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 theSlovenian National Party. In 1997, theLiberal Democracy of Slovenia formed a coalition government with the populistSlovenian 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 theSlovenian People's Party. After less than six months in opposition, Drnovšek returned to power in the autumn of 2000, after his party gained a clear victory in the parliamentary elections.
Drnovšek's governments guided Slovenia's political andeconomic 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 frequently authoritarian presidents, Slovenia under Drnovšek's premiership quickly emerged from the break-up of the federation as a functioningparliamentary democracy. Drnovšek's political strategy was concentrated on broad coalitions, transcending ideological and programmatic divisions between parties.
Contrary to some other former Communist countries inEastern Europe, the economic and social transformation in Slovenia pursued by Drnovšek's governments followed agradualist approach.[4]
Drnovšek was a staunch supporter of Slovenia's entry in theEuropean Union andNATO 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 16 June 2001, he helped to arrange the first meeting of the U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush with the Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, which was held in theUpper Carniolan estate ofBrdo pri Kranju. (Bush-Putin 2001) In 2002, he ran forPresident of Slovenia, and was elected in the second round, defeating the center-right candidateBarbara Brezigar.
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 toDarfur and a proposal for the solution of the political crisis inKosovo. On January 30, 2006, he left theLiberal Democracy of Slovenia. Shortly afterwards, he founded theMovement 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 onTV Slovenia.
The2004 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 2002-04, the relationship between President Drnovšek and Janez Janša, then leader of the opposition, were considered more than good[5] and in the first year of cohabitation, no major problems arose.
In the beginning of his term, Drnovšek, who was ill withkidney cancer, stayed out of public view. When he reemerged in late 2005 he had already changed his lifestyle: he had become avegan (though one of his colleagues in a televised interview mentioned their regular Sunday visits to a pizzeria in Maxi market, Ljubljana), 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'sGandhi".[6][7]
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 inDarfur andKosovo.[7] Initially, these initiatives were not openly opposed by the Prime MinisterJanez Janša, but were criticized by the foreign ministerDimitrij Rupel,[8] Drnovšek's former collaborator and close political ally until 2004.[9]
A major clash between the two happened in Summer 2006, when disagreement arose over Drnovšek's attempt to intervene in the Darfur conflict.[10] The disagreements moved from issues of domestic politics in October 2006, when Drnovšek publicly criticised the treatment of the Strojans, aRomani family whose neighborhood had forced them to relocate, which in turn had subjected them to police supervision and limitation of movement.[6]
The disagreements however escalated when the parliamentary majority repeatedly rejected President's candidates for the Governor of theBank of Slovenia, beginning with the rejection of incumbentMitja Gaspari.[11] The friction continued over the appointment of other state official nominees, includingConstitutional 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.[7][12]
The tension reached its apex in May 2007, when the newly appointed director of theSlovenian Intelligence and Security AgencyMatjaž Šinkovec unclassified several documents from the period before 2004, revealing, among other, that Drnovšek had used secret service funds for personal purposes between 2002-04. The President reacted with a harsh criticism of the government's policies, accusing the ruling coalition of abusing its power for personal delegitimations[13] and labeled the then current Prime MinisterJanez Janša as "the leader of the negative guys"[14]
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 ablogger (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 theMovement for Justice and Development and the popularization of his lifestyle and views.
During his time in office as the President of Slovenia, he wrote and published several books inspiritual philosophy, includingMisli 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 calledPogovori 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, includingHindu religious thought and the non-attachment ofBuddhist philosophy. He also valued the indigenous traditions of the world. For example, he was present at the inauguration ofEvo Morales, the first native American president ofBolivia, and later hosted Bolivian ethnic musicians in thePresidential Palace in Ljubljana. After his cancer diagnosis, Drnovšek became avegan and claimed that this greatly improved his health.[15]
Because of his new lifestyle and the content of his books and blogs, he was often regarded as an adherent of theNew Age movement, although he rejected such a qualification as being too narrow.
In 2005, he found out about the existence of a daughter,Nana Forte, otherwise a renowned composer.[17] His sister is Helena Drnovšek Zorko,[18] who has been the Slovenian ambassador in Japan since September 2010.[19]
In 1999, Drnovšek hadkidney cancer resulting in the removal of a kidney. In 2001, he had cancerous formations on his lungs and liver. He repeatedly claimednature was the best cure, and spent most of his days at his home in Zaplana. He died there on February 23, 2008, aged 57, just two months after his presidential term ended. His body was cremated shortly afterwards. His remains were buried with honors in a private memorial service in his nativeZagorje ob Savi, alongside his parents.[20]
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