Milan Kucan, President of the Republic of Slovenia
President Milan Kucan's second five-year presidential term of
office ends on 23 December 2002. He was elected President of the
Republic of Slovenia for his second term in November 1997 as an
independent candidate on the civil list and was elected in the first round against seven opponents, winning 55.54% of the votes.
Political biography:
Milan Kucan embarked on his professional political career
immediately after obtaining his degree in law. His reformist attitudes
and commitment to democratic political principles had a great impact
in Slovenia in the mid-eighties after his return from Belgrade where
he faced great opposition and gained valuable political experience in
the former Yugoslavian federal bodies.
As leader of the League of Communists of Slovenia he declared his
commitment to open political dialogue immediately upon assuming that
position in 1986. He assured the citizens of Slovenia that he would do
everything to expand the sphere of political freedoms and respect for
human dignity. He supported the separation of the party from the state
as well as political pluralism. Two years into his presidency, the
Slovene political springtime came into full bloom in the shape of
plurality and legitimacy of different political orientations, and
foreign reporters wrote about Slovenia as an island of political
freedom in the former political East.
Milan Kucan voiced his objection to national inequality and lack of
democracy in the former Yugoslavia, as well as to those currents that
were leading to states of emergency and bloody war. He did the same
when the rights of the Albanian ethnic minority and the autonomy of
Kosovo were being defended. When the former Yugoslavia started turning
into a danger zone threatening peace and security in Europe, he was
seeking ways towards an agreement on the peaceful dismantling of
Yugoslavia through the assertion of the right of nations to
self-determination. He was convinced that the greatest risk for the
constituent nations laid in preserving the integrity of the former
Yugoslavia at all costs. He is a committed advocate of non- violent
solutions. He proved this during the time when Slovenia itself fell
prey to the aggression of the Yugoslav army, and managed to obtain
political consensus for the Brioni Declaration, which was decisive for
peace in Slovenia. Milan Kucan was leading Slovenia when the country
made true its dream of independence and became a member of the United Nations.
Ever since 1989 when political pluralism blossomed with the
founding of new political associations and parties in Slovenia, Milan
Kucan has remained the most popular personality in Slovenia, which is
evident from the results of public opinion polls conducted by Slovene research institutes, as well as from the regular monthly opinion polls
in Slovene dailies, which declared him to be Slovenia's political
figure of the decade in 2001. Also interesting are political opinion
polls conducted in Slovenia in December 2001, showing that if Milan
Kucan were to found or lead a political party it would win 40%,
according to some media even as many 54% of the votes at parliamentary
elections. As in past years Milan Kucan himself remains the most
credible political figure according to these polls.
In 1990 he was elected President of the Presidency of Slovenia -
then still a former Yugoslav republic - and opted for suprapartite
political action. He strove for the greatest possible consensus among
political forces, as well as for national reconciliation. In 1992, in
the first direct elections in the independent Republic of Slovenia,
when he also stood as an independent candidate on the civil list, he
was elected in the first round against seven opponents, winning 64 per
cent of the votes.
Political career:
Youth Association of the former Yugoslav Republic of Slovenia
1964-1967, President 1968-1969; Secretariat of the CC of the League of
Communists of the Slovenia, member 1969-1973; Socialist Alliance of
Slovenia, secretary 1973-1978, Assembly of Slovenia, President
1978-1982; Presidency of the CC of the League of Communists of former
Yugoslavia, representative of Slovenia 1982-1986; CC of the League of
Communists of Slovenia, President 1986-1989; President of the
Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia 1990-1992, President of the
Republic of Slovenia 1992-1997, 1997-2002.
Biographical data:
Milan Kucan was born on 14 January 1941 in Krizevci, a village in
the eastern region of Prekmurje near the Slovenian-Hungarian
border. He grew up in a family of teachers within a Protestant
environment. His father, an officer in the resistance movement, was
killed by the Nazis. He attended primary and secondary school in
Murska Sobota and obtained a law degree from the University of
Ljubljana in 1964. He is married to Stefka Kucan and has two
daughters, Ana and Spela, and grandson Fedja.
Honours:
Knight with the medal of the Order of Pope Pius conferred by Pope
John Paul II in 1993; Collar of the Order "Pro Merito
Melitensi" by the Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of
Malta Fra Andrew W.N. Bertie in 1995; The Grand Cross of Honour of the
Republic of Hungary by President Arpad Göncz and The Grand Medal of
the Republic of Estonia by President Lennart Meri in 1997; The Grand
Croix de I'Ordre du Repenteur of the Hellenic Republic by President
Constantinos Stephanopoulos in 1999; The White Double Cross Order of
the Republic of Slovakia by President Rudolf Schuster, The Order of
the Elephant of Her Majesty Queen Margarethe II; The Grand Order of
King Tomislav of Croatia by President Stijepan Mesic; The Order of the
Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George of Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II in 2001; Collar of the Order of Isabella Catholic of the
Spanish King Juan Carlos I., Star of Romania, Republic of Romania in
2002. The Crans Montana Prix de la Fundation for his contribution to
peace, stability and cooperation in Europe in 1999; Honorary Doctorate
from Cleveland State Universaty in 2001.
Membership:
International Board of Directors of the Shimon Peres Institute for
Peace
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