Janez Podobnik MD
Janez Podobnik MD was born on 17 September 1959 in Cerkno. After graduating from the Ljubljana University Faculty of Medicine in 1984, he worked as a general practitioner at the Idrija Health Centre and at a surgery in Cerkno. He has served as mayor of the municipality of Idrija and of the municipality of Cerkno.
At the 1992 parliamentary elections he was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of the SLS. In 1996 he became president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. At the 2000 parliamentary elections he was re-elected to the National Assembly as an SLS deputy and became the leader of the SLS parliamentary group, deputy chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee, a member of the Constitutional Commission, a member of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Science and Sport, a member of the Rules of Procedure Committee and a member of the Committee for Relations with Slovene Minorities in Neighbouring Countries and Slovenes Around the World.
As a parliamentary representative of the SLS, Janez Podobnik served as an observer at the European Parliament, where he was actively involved in the Committee for Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism and helped shape the policy and work of the parliamentary group of the European People's Party. As a member of the delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, he took part in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Dr Podobnik headed the SLS's Programme Council for several years and in 2000 he was appointed chairman of the party's Executive Committee.
At the SLS conference on 15 November 2003 in Rogaška Slatina, Dr Podobnik was elected the new president of the SLS by a majority vote.
