Igor Šoltes (born August 22, 1964) 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 ...

n lawyer and politician.

Career

Šoltes served as the President of the Court of Auditors of Slovenia from 2004 to 2013. In 2008, he received his PhD at the Faculty of Social Studies 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 ...

. In January 2014, Šoltes was seen as a possible candidate for minister of health; however, he decided to refuse the offer from Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek due to lack of political support in the coalition. Before the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

, Šoltes formed a ticket named Verjamem (meaning "I believe" in Slovene) which won 10.45% of the vote, securing one seat in the European Parliament (for Šoltes). Following the election, Šoltes announced a plan to transform the ticket into a full political party at a congress that would take place on 4 June 2014 in order for the party to enter the

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

in July 2014. After receiving 6,800 votes in the parliamentary election, he resigned as president of Verjamem. In 2022, he ran in the parliamentary elections as a candidate of the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

(SD) but was not elected. He was later appointed State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, responsible for criminal law, human rights, international cooperation, and judicial training. On 15 February 2024, he was dismissed in connection with the ''Judicial Building'' affair.

Personal life

Šoltes is the grandson of the late Yugoslav politician and economist

Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 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 ...

References

1964 births Living people Lawyers from Ljubljana MEPs for Slovenia 2014–2019 University of Ljubljana alumni Politicians from Ljubljana 20th-century Slovenian lawyers {{slovenia-MEP-stub

Career

Personal life

See also

References