Jože Pučnik

Jože Pučnik ( born March 9, 1932 in Črešnjevec, Slovenska Bistrica, † January 12, 2003 in Germany ) was a Slovenian politician. He was 1989-1993 President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS ) and was one of those that led to independence from Yugoslavia, Slovenia.

Biography

After completion of high school education in Maribor Jože Pučnik studied philosophy and comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana. Due critical of the government activities, he was twice sentenced to prison. He then emigrated to West Germany, where he received his doctorate in 1971 at the University of Hamburg.

In 1989, he returned to what was then Yugoslavia back and was co-founder and November 1989 to May 1993 Chairman of the Socialist Federal Slovenia ( Slovenije Socialdemokratska zveza SZS ), the 1990 Social Democratic Party of Slovenia ( Slovenska Demokratska stranka SDS) renamed itself. In addition, he was Chairman of the opposition alliance DEMOS. Pučnik 1990 was a member of the first freely elected National Assembly of Slovenia and remained until 1996 a member of parliament. In 1990 he joined unsuccessfully as a candidate of DEMOS against Milan Kučan in the presidential elections.

After the collapse of the government Peterle he was in 1992 a few months Deputy Prime Minister of Slovenia in the first government of Janez Drnovšek.

In 1997, he retired from politics. Dr. Jože Pučnik died on 12 January 2003 at the age of seventy years.

Tributes

2006 were attributed to him after his death unique contribution to Slovenia and in 2007 awarded him the government of Slovenia by named after him ( Letališče Jožeta Pučnika Ljubljana) them. The international airport of Ljubljana at Brnik