21 Facts About Lojze Peterle

Alojz "Lojze" Peterle was born on 5 July 1948 and is a Slovenian politician.

Lojze Peterle is a member of New Slovenia, part of the European People's Party.

Lojze Peterle served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 1990 to 1992, Leader of the Christian Democrats from the founding of the party in 1990 until it merged with the Slovenian People's Party in 2000, and was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1994 and again in 2000.

Lojze Peterle was a Member of the National Assembly from 1996 to 2004, and a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2019.

Lojze Peterle was born to a peasant family in the Lower Carniolan village of Cuznja Vas near Trebnje.

Lojze Peterle became prime minister of Slovenia in May 1990 after parliamentary elections of April 1990 won by the DEMOS coalition.

Lojze Peterle served as prime minister until May 1992, when due to an internal crisis in the DEMOS coalition, a new coalition government under Janez Drnovsek was established by a constructive vote of no confidence.

Lojze Peterle served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister from January 1993 until October 1994.

Tensions were deep in the coalition and Lojze Peterle resigned from his posts in 1994 when Drnovsek nominated Jozef Skolc, a member of his own Liberal Democratic Party, to be speaker of Parliament, against the wishes of Lojze Peterle who believed that a Christian Democrat should be the speaker.

In 1996, Lojze Peterle called for the dismissal of foreign minister Zoran Thaler because of his belief that Thaler did not do enough to help Slovenia's relations with Italy.

Between 1996 and 2000, the Christian Democrats remained in opposition, and Lojze Peterle's leadership was frequently challenged by different fractions within the party.

Lojze Peterle nevertheless managed to remain the chairman of the Party until 2000, when the Christian Democrats merged with the Slovenian People's Party, which had until then supported Janez Drnovsek's third term as prime minister.

In 2002, Lojze Peterle became the 13th member of the steering committee of the Convention on the Future of Europe, which drafted the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

Lojze Peterle served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament.

Lojze Peterle was a member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights from 2004 until 2009.

Lojze Peterle previously served on the delegations for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee and for relations with Japan.

Lojze Peterle was a supporter of the MEP Heart Group, a group of parliamentarians who have an interest in promoting measures that will help reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases.

In November 2006, Lojze Peterle announced that he would be running for President of Slovenia in the 2007 presidential election.

Lojze Peterle is a founder and current President of the group MEPs Against Cancer.

Lojze Peterle was not re-elected to the European Parliament at the 2019 European Parliament election in Slovenia.

Lojze Peterle is president of the Slovenian beekeepers association and hosted the 2003 Apimondia beekeepers congress in Ljubljana.