Pahor, Borut

views updated

Borut Pahor (bō´rōōt pä´hôr), 1963–, Slovenian politician, president of Slovenia (2012–). He became politically involved in high school and was active in the Communist League's reformist wing. After Slovenian independence (1992), Pahor became a leader of the Social Democratic party, advocating a rejection of the communist past and favoring a free-market economy. First elected to the National Assembly in 1992, he was its president from 2000 to 2004. In 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament. Pahor became prime minister after his party won a narrow plurality in 2008, leading a center-left coalition government until 2011. In 2012 he defeated Danilo Türk to become Slovenia's president.