The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Slovenia

This page contains a list of the greatest Slovene Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 24 of which were born in Slovenia. This makes Slovenia the birth place of the 94th most number of Politicians behind Malta, and Myanmar (Burma).

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Slovene Politicians of all time. This list of famous Slovene Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Slovene Politicians.

1. Barbara of Cilli (1392 - 1451)

With an HPI of 70.63, Barbara of Cilli is the most famous Slovene Politician. Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages on wikipedia.

Barbara of Cilli or Barbara of Celje (Hungarian: Cillei Borbála, German: Barbara von Cilli, Slovenian and Croatian: Barbara Celjska, 1392 – 11 July 1451), was the Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia by marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. She was actively involved in politics and economy of her times, independently administering large feudal fiefdoms and taxes, and was instrumental in creating the famous royal Order of the Dragon. She served as the regent of Hungarian kingdom in the absence of her husband four times: in 1412, 1414, 1416, and 1418.

2. Milan Kučan (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 62.89, Milan Kučan is the 2nd most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 45 different languages.

Milan Kučan (pronounced [ˈmíːlaŋ ˈkúːtʃan]; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovenian former politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 1991 to 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of the Presidency of SR Slovenia from 1990 to 1991. Kučan also served as the 7th President of the League of Communists of Slovenia from 1986 to 1989.

3. Edvard Kardelj (1910 - 1979)

With an HPI of 61.88, Edvard Kardelj is the 3rd most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Edvard Kardelj (pronounced [ˈéːdʋaɾt kaɾˈdéːl]; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans, and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. During the war, Kardelj was one of the leaders of the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People and a Slovene Partisan. After the war, he was a federal political leader in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He led the Yugoslav delegation in peace talks with Italy over the border dispute in the Julian March. Kardelj was the main creator of the Yugoslav system of workers' self-management. He was an economist and a full member of both the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He also played a major role in foreign policy by designing the fundamental ideological basis for the Yugoslav policy of nonalignment in the 1950s and the 1960s.

4. Janez Drnovšek (1950 - 2008)

With an HPI of 61.19, Janez Drnovšek is the 4th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 58 different languages.

Janez Drnovšek (Slovene pronunciation: [ˈjàːnɛz dəɾˈnɔ́ːwʃək]; 17 May 1950 – 23 February 2008) was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992–2002, with a short break in 2000) and President of Slovenia (2002–2007).

5. Aleksander Čeferin (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 61.08, Aleksander Čeferin is the 5th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Aleksander Čeferin (pronounced [alɛˈksaːndəɾ tʃɛfɛˈɾiːn]; born 13 October 1967) is a Slovenian lawyer and football administrator. Between 2011 and 2016, he was president of the Football Association of Slovenia. Since September 2016, he has been the president of UEFA.

6. Hermann II, Count of Celje (1361 - 1435)

With an HPI of 60.65, Hermann II, Count of Celje is the 6th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Hermann II (Slovene: Herman; early 1360s – 13 October 1435), Count of Celje, was a Styrian prince and magnate, most notable as the faithful supporter and father-in-law of the Hungarian king and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. Hermann's loyalty to the King ensured him generous grants of land and privileges that led him to become the greatest landowner in Slavonia. He served as governor of Carniola, and twice as ban of the combined provinces of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, and was recognized by a treaty in 1427 as heir presumptive to the Kingdom of Bosnia. The House of Celje's rise to power culminated in achieving the dignity of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. At the peak of his power, he controlled two thirds of the land in Carniola, most of Lower Styria, and exercised power over all of medieval Croatia. Hermann was one of the most important representatives of the House of Celje, having brought the dynasty from regional importance to the foreground of Central European politics.

7. Arkan (1952 - 2000)

With an HPI of 60.30, Arkan is the 7th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Željko Ražnatović (Serbian Cyrillic: Жељко Ражнатовић, pronounced [ʒêːʎko raʒnâːtoʋitɕ]; 17 April 1952 – 15 January 2000), better known as Arkan (Serbian Cyrillic: Аркан), was a Serbian warlord, mobster and head of the Serb paramilitary force called the Serb Volunteer Guard during the Yugoslav Wars, considered one of the most feared and effective paramilitary forces during the wars. His paramilitary unit was responsible for numerous crimes in Eastern Bosnia, including murder, pillaging, rape and ethnic cleansings. He was on Interpol's top ten most wanted list in the 1970s and 1980s for robberies and murders committed in countries across Europe, he escaped jail twice, and was later indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity. Up until his assassination in January 2000, Ražnatović was the most powerful organized crime figure in the Balkans, as well as the most powerful state-sponsored gangster in Serbia.

8. Janez Janša (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 59.86, Janez Janša is the 8th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages.

Ivan Janša (Slovene: [ˈíːʋan ˈjàːnʃa]; born 17 September 1958), baptized and best known as Janez Janša (Slovene: [ˈjàːnɛs]), is a Slovenian politician who served three times as a prime minister of Slovenia, a position he had held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013, and from 2020 to 2022. Since 1993, Janša has led the Slovenian Democratic Party, which has emerged as the pre-eminent Slovenian conservative party. Janša lost his fourth bid for prime minister in April 2022, his party defeated by the Freedom Movement party. Janša served as minister of defence from 1990 to 1994, a post he had also held during the Slovenian War of Independence. Janša served as prime minister from 2004 to 2008, and again became prime minister in 2012, following an early election in December 2011. On 27 February 2013, Janša's second government was ousted in a vote of non-confidence. In June 2013, Janša was sentenced to two years in prison on corruption charges. The ruling was confirmed by Slovenia's higher court in April 2014, but after the Constitutional Court of Slovenia ordered a retrial for procedural reasons, the case later expired. Despite his party winning a plurality of votes in the 2018 Slovenian parliamentary election, Janša was initially passed over as a prime minister candidate as most parties refused to join a Janša-led government because of Janša's extremist views. After spending years in opposition, Janša was selected as prime minister-designate in March 2020 following the resignation of prime minister Marjan Šarec. His third term as a prime minister ended on 13 May 2022. A communist in his youth, Janša's political stance has drifted rightward during the course of his political career, from a liberal, pro-democracy dissident under communist rule, to a social democrat politician, and to a right-wing hardliner. Janša was described as a far-right leader by The Independent and by Foreign Policy in 2020. His style of politics has been compared to Donald Trump. He has been dubbed a "MAGA-style populist" by NPR, "the Slovenian Trump" by Der Spiegel, and "mini-Trump" by Deutsche Welle. Following the 2020 United States presidential election, Janša declared Trump the winner, and proceeded to tweet a series of conspiracy theories about the election. Janša is a close ally of Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán.

9. Borut Pahor (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 59.57, Borut Pahor is the 9th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 76 different languages.

Borut Pahor (Slovene pronunciation: [ˈbóːɾut ˈpàːxɔɾ]; born 2 November 1963) is a Slovenian politician who served as President of Slovenia from 2012 to 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 2008 to 2012. A longtime member and former president of the Social Democrats, Pahor served several terms as a member of the National Assembly and was its speaker from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Following the victory of the Social Democrats in the 2008 Slovenian parliamentary election, Pahor was appointed as prime minister. In September 2011, Pahor's government lost a confidence vote amidst an economic crisis and political tensions. He continued to serve as the pro tempore Prime Minister until he was replaced by Janez Janša in February 2012. In June 2012, he announced he would run for the office of President of Slovenia. He defeated the incumbent Danilo Türk in a runoff election held on 2 December 2012, receiving roughly two-thirds of the vote. In November 2017, Pahor was re-elected for a second term against Marjan Šarec.

10. Danilo Türk (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 58.39, Danilo Türk is the 10th most famous Slovene Politician. His biography has been translated into 54 different languages.

Danilo Türk (pronounced [daˈníːlɔ ˈtýɾk]; born 19 February 1952) is a Slovenian diplomat, professor of international law, human rights expert, and political figure who served as President of Slovenia from 2007 to 2012. He was the first Slovene ambassador to the United Nations, from 1992 to 2000, and was the UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs from 2000 to 2005. Türk is a visiting professor of international law at Columbia University in New York City, a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, and non-resident senior fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He is the founder of the Danilo Türk Foundation, devoted mostly to the rehabilitation of child victims of armed conflict. Türk is also the chairman of the Global High Level Panel on Water and Peace and the chairman of the board of the Global Fairness Initiative, a Washington, D.C.–based NGO dedicated to economic and social development in developing nations. In 2016, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations.

People

Pantheon has 30 people classified as Slovene politicians born between 1361 and 1999. Of these 30, 20 (66.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Slovene politicians include Milan Kučan, Aleksander Čeferin, and Janez Janša. The most famous deceased Slovene politicians include Barbara of Cilli, Edvard Kardelj, and Janez Drnovšek. As of April 2024, 6 new Slovene politicians have been added to Pantheon including Robert Golob, Sergej Kraigher, and Nataša Pirc Musar.