Gregor Virant (born 4 December 1969) is a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as Minister of Public Administration in

Janez Janša Ivan Janša (; born 17 September 1958), better known as Janez Janša (), 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 ...

's first government, between 2011–2013 he was Speaker of the

National Assembly of Slovenia The National Assembly (, or ; short form ''državni zbor'') is the Representative democracy, general representative body of Slovenia. According to the Constitution of Slovenia and the Constitutional Court of Slovenia, it is the major part of t ...

. He also served as Minister of the Interior and Public Administration in the government of Alenka Bratušek between 2013 and 2014. He was the leader (October 2011 – May 2014) of the Civic List, until April 2012 named ''Gregor Virant's Civic List'', a liberal political party established in October 2011 to compete in the 2011 parliamentary election. Since September 2019 he serves as head of Programme SIGMA, the joint initiative of the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

to provide support for improvement in governance and management to UE candidates and other countries in the area of influence.

Life

Virant was born in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. He studied law at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

and at

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University, informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley (), is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and Glasgow Polytechnic (originally Glasg ...

. Between 1995 and 1999, he worked as a legal adviser to the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

of Slovenia. He resides in

Domžale Domžale (; )''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 24. is a town and the seat of the Municipality of Domžale in Slovenia. The town lies ne ...

Public servant career

In 2000, he was appointed secretary-general at the

Ministry of Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, th ...

(led by

Peter Jambrek Peter Jambrek (born 14 January 1940) is a Slovenian sociologist, jurist, politician and intellectual. He is considered among the fathers of the current Constitution of Slovenia, Slovenian Constitution, and the most influential public intellectual ...

) in the short lived centre-right government of

Andrej Bajuk Andrej Bajuk, also known in Spanish as Andrés Bajuk (18 October 1943 – 16 August 2011) was a Slovene politician and economist. He served briefly as Prime Minister of Slovenia in the year 2000, and was Minister of Finance in the centre-righ ...

. He also remained in office during the

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

governments of Janez Drnovšek and Anton Rop. During that period, he was one of the authors of the reform of public administration, introducing professionalism in

posts.

Political career

Virant resigned from office shortly before the 2004 parliamentary elections, in which he ran as a candidate for the Slovenian National Assembly on the list of the

Slovenian Democratic Party The Slovenian Democratic Party (, SDS), formerly the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (, SDSS), is a conservative parliamentary party; it is also one of the largest parties in Slovenia, with approximately 30,000 reported members in 2013. It ...

. However, he never joined the party. After the electoral victory of the Slovenian Democratic Party in 2004, Virant became the head of the newly created Ministry of Public Administration in the first government led by

. He launched a thorough reform of the public service in Slovenia, which included modernization and economizing of the service. In the last years of Janša's government, Virant frequently ranked as the most popular minister and one of the most popular politicians in Slovenia. After the 2008 parliamentary elections, in which the Slovenian Democratic Party lost to the left-wing coalition headed by the

Social Democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

leader

Borut Pahor Borut Pahor (; 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 D ...

, Virant was replaced as minister by Irma Pavlinič Krebs of the '' Zares'' party. In December 2008, Virant was elected chairman of the

Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic ( ; RPR ) was a Gaullist and conservative political party in France. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR), it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaul ...

(), a civic platform founded in 2004 to promote

classical liberal Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, eco ...

, patriotic, republican, and liberal-conservative values in Slovenian public life. Between 2009 and 2011, he was also member of the Council of Experts of the Slovenian Democratic Party, the main opposition party's shadow government. In October 2011, he announced he would run for parliament in the 2011 parliamentary election on an independent ticket. According to an opinion poll released soon after the announcement, Virant was seen as the most appropriate choice for prime minister by the plurality of voters. On 21 October, the Gregor Virant's Civic List was officially chartered as a political party. On 4 December, Virant was elected to the Slovenian National Assembly as the leader of the Gregor Virant's Civic List. On 21 December, with the votes of his list, the

, the

Slovenian People's Party The Slovenian People's Party (, , Slovene abbreviation SLS ) is a conservative, agrarian, Christian democratic political party in Slovenia. Formed in 1988 under the name of Slovenian Peasant Union as the first democratic political organization i ...

, New Slovenia and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, he became the Speaker of the Assembly, thus defeating the candidate of

Positive Slovenia Positive Slovenia (, PS) was a centre-left political party in Slovenia, following April 2014 led by founder Zoran Janković. The party was founded under the name ''Zoran Janković's List – Positive Slovenia''. It was renamed to ''Positive ...

party, Maša Kociper. He succeeded

Ljubo Germič Ljubo Germič (born 19 November 1960) is a Slovenian politician and a former member of the Slovenian National Assembly. After the resignation of Pavel Gantar, Germič was elected the National Assembly (Slovenia), Speaker of the National Assembly ...

. On 24 April, he was reelected as the leader of the party. After his party received only 1.2% of votes in

European Parliament election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

, he resigned as party leader.

Family life

Virant is married and has two children. He is the son-in-law of the politician Miha Brejc. His cousin, Mija Janković, is married to Zoran Janković, the mayor of Ljubljana and leader of the now dissolved

party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Virant, Gregor 1969 births Slovenian Democratic Party politicians Lawyers from Ljubljana Politicians from Ljubljana University of Ljubljana alumni Deputy prime ministers of Slovenia Living people Presidents of the National Assembly (Slovenia) Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana Alumni of Glasgow Caledonian University Interior ministers of Slovenia 20th-century Slovenian lawyers