Lojze Peterle
Lojze Peterle (actually: Mr Peterle; born July 5, 1948 in Čužnja vas at Trebnje ) is a Slovenian politician and diplomat. He was leader of the Christian Party of Slovenia from its founding in the late 1980s until 2000 merged with other parties to the Christian Democratic Party Nova Slovenija. It helped that Slovenia became independent of the SFR Yugoslavia.
Peterle was in May 1990 after the parliamentary elections Prime Minister of Slovenia. In 1991, he proclaimed the country's independence from Yugoslavia, then followed the 10 -day war in which the territorial Slovenian armed forces could defeat the Yugoslav army. Peterle was prime minister until 1992, when a coalition government led by Janez Drnovšek came to power. From January 1993 to October 1994 was Peterle Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. There was tension in the coalition, and Peterle came back in 1994, because Drnovšek Jožef Školč, a member of his own Liberal Democratic Party, as speaker of parliament nominated, although Peterle wanted a Christian Democrat should be speaker. The Christian Democrats remained in the coalition, but they were often at odds. 1996 called for the dismissal of Foreign Minister Peterle Zoran Thaler, because he believed that Thaler Slovenia did not promote relations with Italy enough.
When in 2000 the government fell, Peterle foreign minister in the short-lived government of Andrej Bajuk June to September 2000, when Drnovšek came to power again and again. Peterle diplomatic policy always tried to improve Slovenia's relations with other countries to secure Slovenia's reputation in the international community.
In 2002, he became ill with cancer. In the European elections 2004 of the European Parliament Peterle was chosen for the party New Slovenia. In the European Parliament he is engaged, inter alia, to in the cross-party group " MEPs against Cancer ".
2007 target Peterle to the post of President of Slovenia. In the first round of the presidential elections on 21 October Peterle was indeed the most votes, was defeated in the runoff election on 11 November 2007, however, Danilo Türk.