1. Darko Krajnc, MSc
Mr Darko Krajnc was born on 9 May 1975 and spent his childhood in a foster home. His foster parents were strict but fair and he always felt as a part of the family. He lived on a small farm where all members of the family had to work and he gained many good working habits that he appreciates to this day. He especially remembers that his foster parents did not make any differences between the children. Besides going to school he was also active in school chess team and represented his school in the Nationals. Mr Krajnc was also successful in mathematics. After obtaining a degree in social affairs he continued his studies in Ljubljana at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the field of sociology.
He is a president of the Youth Party of Slovenia since 2004. Darko Krajnc is a young politician with a European vision. His political path started in his early student days where he was a student deputy in student parliament in Ljubljana and later also a student minister for social affairs and health. He was the first president of Student Organisation of Slovenia and was an active member in the Council of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Student Affairs. Mr Krajnc is currently also a Municipal Councillor in Šentilj Municipality. In March 2007 he was elected to leadership of "Green dialogue East - West" association in the context of European Green Party.
For more information, please visit www.darkokrajnc.si.
2. Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti
Mr Jelinčič was born on 7 January 1948 in Maribor as a first son of his mother Lea Rižnar and father Rado Jelinčič. Soon after his birth the family moved to Ljubljana where Zmago went to primary school and later high school Poljane. He continued his education at the University of Ljubljana at the Faculty of Pharmacy. During his student years, Zmago was a ballet dancer in Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet in Ljubljana. Mr Jelinčič joined in Slovenian political life in 1989 and founded his own political party on 17 March 1991 - Slovenian National Party. During the war for Slovenia he was actively involved in special military units. In 1992 he led his party on the first elections for National Assembly and won 12 seats in a 90 seat Assembly. He was the first president of Parliamentarian Committee for Defence. The party was re-elected to the National Assembly in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Mr Jelinčič is a member of many domestic and foreign organizations such as American Pharmaceutical Association (AphA). He is a diver, sport pilot, president of Aeronautical Association of Slovenia and president of Boxing Club Kranj.
For more information, please visit zmago.sns.si.
3. Mitja Gaspari
Mr Gaspari was born on 25 November 1951 in Ljubljana and was very knowledge hungry child. As far as he can remember he was constantly asking questions and when he learned to read, he started searching for answers in books. He spent his afternoons in Park Tivoli with his mother. His father was a construction engineer and therefore spent a lot of his time away from home on different construction sites. Mr Gaspari enjoyed his holidays at Pokljuka where his father taught him to ski. He also fancied his vacations with his aunt at Blejska Dobrava. His favourite toy was a car brought by his grandfather. Mr Gaspari has a younger brother named Marko - after his only and favourite teddy bear.
Mitja Gaspari liked going to school and was very interested in history, sociology and chemistry. He had a reputation of a steady and serious pupil mainly because his passion towards reading. When he read Samuelson's book "Economics" he realized that economics is going to be his field of interest during his studies at University of Ljubljana. He was most fascinated by monetary economics and he built his dissertation around this theme and received Prešeren Prize for it. He continued his postgraduate studies at the University of Belgrade.
Throughout his professional career, Mr Gaspari was involved in economics and finance. He worked in National Bank of Slovenia as a researcher and later became a Director of Analytical Research Centre. He was also a Deputy Governor of National Bank of Slovenia and National Bank of Yugoslavia. In the early nineties he worked at the World Bank in Washington. Upon his return to Slovenia in 1992 he became the Minister of Finance and stayed in the office for 8 years. He successfully organized the Slovenian financial system, reorganized the tax administration, introduced value added tax and prepared some crucial laws on public finance. In 2001 he was elected for Governor of Bank of Slovenia. His most important professional success might as well be the introduction of Euro in Slovenia on 1 January 2007.
For more information, please visit www.gaspari.si.
4. Danilo Türk, Ph.D.
Danilo Türk was born on 19 February 1952 and spent his youth in Maribor as a firstborn son of a teacher Štefan and dressmaker Marija. His youth was full of joy and bruised knees but was relatively short lived as his father died before Mr Türk finished his primary school with honours. His wish for a better and fairer world led him to University of Ljubljana where he studied law. After he graduated from Faculty of Law he attended to studying minorities and human rights issues. In 1978 he became Master of Science with his thesis on international legal protection of minorities and consequently started working at the Faculty of Law. In 1983 he earned his Ph.D. and became the Head of Institute for International Law and International Relations.
He stayed faithful to protecting human rights and he cooperated with Amnesty International in several cases of violation of human rights in former Yugoslavia. In 13 years of successful international career he managed to achieve most of his set goals and he is especially proud on the fact that Slovenia is a respected member of the United Nations. Today, Danilo Türk is associate dean at Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, he writes books and passes on his knowledge and experiences to younger generations.
For more information, please visit www.daniloturk.si.
5. Elena Pečarič
Elena Pečarič was born on 6 October 1971 in Ljubljana. She has a degree in philosophy and sociology of culture. Miss Pečarič was the beginner and co-founder of informal group Youth Handicapped Deprivileged, which later became an Association YHD - Society for Theory and Culture of Handicap. She is the president of the society and fully employed by the society. Her responsibilities are public relations and she is in charge for project "Independent life of handicapped people." Since 1996 until 2000 she hosted a radio show called "Gastroskopy" on Radio Student. She is very active in all sorts of events and lectures on independent life and theory of handicap and is involved in promotional actions on solidarity, cooperation of different organizations and spreads the new insight on handicapped people and other marginal groups.
Elena Pečarič is a member of editorial board of theoretical journal AWOL - magazine for social studies. In different specialized magazines and Slovenian newspapers she has published several articles.
For more information, please visit www.elena-priloznosti.com.
6. Monika Piberl
Ms Monika Piberl was born on 4 January 1950 in Maribor and is proud to be from Maribor. Before her retirement she worked in economy, especially in marketing and as a successful commercialist. She found herself in politics by coincidence when she heard the former Prime Minister, Mr Anton Rop presenting the so called White Book, which foreseen for women to work until they are 65 years old. This motivated her to join the politics and present the view of women on this issue. She is aware that only together with men we can create a society suitable for all population.
She is a founder of a political party called Women's Voice of Slovenia. They are very active in Municipal Council of Maribor and through the years they proved that their party is objective and correct. Their work is intended for the benefit of everyone not only for the benefit of certain small elite group. She is very open, says what she thinks, she is objective, correct, respectful towards everyone. Ms Piberl is against expensive election campaigns and prefers modesty. She thinks that it would more suitable to donate the money to hospitals, children who need help, elderly people, etc. than to spend it on campaigns.
Ms Piberl has a lot of hobbies, she likes to ski, swim, ride the bike and she especially enjoys riding scooters and motorbikes. She likes to travel, loves music and dance and fancies animals a lot.
For more information, please visit www.monikapiberl.com.
7. Lojze Peterle
Lojze Peterle was born on 5 July 1948 in Čužnja vas. In his childhood he learned to play on oral harmonica and later on in his life he learned to play an accordion. His father taught him how to hunt the dormouse. He is interested in sports especially athletics. In 1966 he acquires his first flying license. He studied on Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana where he still lives today. Together with Janez Strgar he organized the last public protest in Ljubljana in support of Slovenian minority in Koroška. Mr Peterle became a beekeeper in 1976 and in 1996 he became the president of Beekeepers Association of Slovenia and led the organization for one decade. During his term he organized the biggest world congress as he managed to gather more than 6000 participants from around the world. He is a co-founder of Slovenian Christian Democratic Party and was also its first president. After they won the elections, Lojze Peterle became the first democratically elected president of Slovenian Government. The year 2002 is not a good one for Mr Peterle as he is diagnosed with cancer. At first, he seems to accept the fact of cancer but later finds the energy and strength to fight it and with positive energy he manages to defeat it. In 2003 he becomes European of the year and in 2005 he successfully intermediates in Kyrgyz revolution.
For more information, please visit www.peterle.si.