Borut Pahor is the incumbent President of Slovenia, a NATO member country. Formerly, he was the Prime Minister of Slovenia (2008 – 2012) and Speaker of the National Assembly (2000 – 2004). Pahor is also one of the longest presidents of the Social Democratic Party.
Early Life and Education
Borut Pahor was born on 2 November 1963 in Postojna and was raised in Nova Gorica and Sempeter pri Gorici. He went to Nova Gorica High School for early education and joined the University of Ljubljana for a degree in political science. Graduating in 1987, Pahor received Preseren Award for his thesis on peace negotiation between NAM members.
Personal Life
Borut Pahor isn’t married, but he has a partner. Tanja Pecar and Pahor have been together for long time and also have a son named Luka.
Career
Borut Pahor has been an active politician since the high school years. By the age of 15, he had already been the chairman of high school Alliance of Socialist Youth of Slovenia. After high school, Pahor acquired a membership of the League of Communists of Slovenia. In the final year at the University of Ljubljana, he bade to become president of the university Alliance of Socialist Youth of Slovenia. Unfortunately, Pahor was unsuccessful in this attempt.
In the late 1980s, Pahor significantly rose to political prominence as a communism supporter. He also helped found Democratic Forum in 1989 and held a membership position at the Central Committee of the League of Slovenian Communists. Subsequently, Pahor came into national politics as a member of parliament in April 1990. While he was rising, his party was failing to grab voters’ support. Hence, Pahor became the party leader in 1997.
Pahor saw another political milestone in 2000 when he was elected to chair the Slovenian National Assembly. As a prominent National Assembly member, he strongly supported Slovenian NATO membership and condemned any leaders who opposed commemoration of expired Joze Pucnik. In 2004, Pahor left the National Assembly leadership to join the European Parliament. As a parliamentary member, he played crucial roles in budgetary control, constitution amendment and negotiating treaties with France, Netherlands, and Portugal.
On 21 November 2008, Borut Pahor assumed the office of Prime Minister and formed a government in cooperation with the Liberal Democracy if Slovenia. Entering amid a deepening global financial crisis, Pahor’s government quickly became infamous among the people. This paved reasons for the opposition party to accuse the government of incompetency. Consequently, on 20 September, a vote of no confidence was passed against the government resulting in its downfall. He left the office on 10 February 2012 and decided to run for President of Slovenia.
In the 2012 presidential election, Pahor had a landslide victory with 67.3% votes in favor and assumed the office on 22 December 2012. As the youngest Slovenian president ever, Pahor has proved himself to be productive on numerous fronts. He had an official meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Russia-Slovenia ties and formulate alternatives to solve Ukraine conflict.
So far, Pahor’s presidency has done just fine on economics. The Slovenian economy is growing at a rate of 2.7%, but the unemployment rate is as high as 10.8%. In addition, the inflation rate is just above 1%. A minus point to Pahor’s presidency: the Government Debt to GDP ratio is continuously rising.
Trump and Pahor
Interestingly, Melania Trump was born in Slovenia. This relationship between the US First Lady and Slovenia might prove to be fruitful to Trump administration. Reportedly, the US First couple jointly called the Slovenian counterparts and expressed greetings to each other. In the same way, Slovenian President Pahor has been urging Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to hold their diplomatic talks in Slovenia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvPYLdh4RVE
