Borut Pahor

Biography: A Slovenian politician. A longtime president of the Social Democrats party, Pahor served several terms as a member of the National Assembly, including as its chairman in the years 2000-2004. In 2004, Pahor was elected as member of the European Parliament. Following the victory of Social Democrats in the Slovenian parliamentary election in 2008, Pahor was appointed the Prime Minister of Slovenia. In September 2011, Pahor?s government lost a confidence vote amidst an economic crisis and political tensions.

Pahor was born in Postojna, SR Slovenia (in the former Yugoslavia) and spent his childhood in the town of Nova Gorica on the border with Italy, before moving to the nearby town of Sempeter pri Gorici. He attended Nova Gorica Grammar School, and in 1983 he enrolled to the University of Ljubljana, where he studied public policy and political science at the Faculty of Sociology, Political Science and Journalism (FSPN, now known as Faculty for Social Sciences, FDV). He graduated in 1987 with a thesis on peace negotiations between members of the Non-Aligned Movement. His B.A. thesis was awarded the Student Pre-eren Award, the highest academic award for students in Slovenia. According to the Slovenian press, Pahor worked as a male model to pay for his university studies.

Pahor became involved in party politics already in high school. At the age of 15, he became the chairman of the high school student?s section of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Slovenia, the autonomous youth branch of the Communist Party. In his college years, Pahor joined the ruling League of Communists of Slovenia. In 1987, he ran for the Presidency of University Section of the Alliance of the Socialist Youth of Slovenia. This internal election was important, as it was the first elections in Yugoslavia organized entirely according to democratic principles. In the election, in which the members could freely choose between two antagonistic teams, Pahor?s team lost to a more liberal fraction. As a consequence, the Youth Alliance emancipated from the control of the Communist Party: a process that resulted in the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1990. Due to this shift, Pahor continued his political career in the main apparatus of the Communist Party. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s, when he became one of the strongest supporters of the reformist wing of the Communist party, led by Milan Kucan and Ciril Ribicic.

In 1989, Pahor co-founded and chaired the Democratic Forum, a youth section within the Slovenian Communist Party established as a counter-force to the Alliance of Socialist Youth, which was now already openly opposing the Communists? policies. The same year, he was appointed to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Slovenia, thus becoming the youngest member of this body in its history. In 1990, he participated in the Slovenian delegation at the last Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in Belgrade.

Pahor and his partner, Tanja Pecar, have a son, Luka.