Barbara Brezigar (born 1 December 1953) is a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n lawyer and politician. She currently serves as Secretary General at the Ministry of the Interior of Slovenia. She was born in a middle-class family in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

as Barbara Gregorin. Her uncle on her mother's side was the famous Slovene literary critic, essayist and theatre director Bojan Štih. After finishing the Bežigrad Grammar School, she enrolled at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

where she studied law. In 1993, she became the head of the section for economic and business crimes in the Slovenian public prosecution. In 1996, the Prosecutor General Anton Drobnič appointed her as head of a special group of prosecutors for corporate and

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. In 1997, she became a member of a Council of Experts of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

money laundry Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

. In 1999, she ran as a candidate for Prosecutor General of Slovenia, but the government led by

Janez Drnovšek Janez Drnovšek (; 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 (200 ...

appointed Zdenka Cerar instead. The same year, Brezigar stepped down as head of the Special Group of prosecutors in disagreement with the newly appointed Prosecutor General. In June 2000, Brezigar was appointed Minister of Justice in the short-lived

centre right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and merc ...

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-right g ...

. The September of the same year, she unsuccessfully ran for the

Slovenian National Assembly The National Assembly ( sl, Državni zbor Republike Slovenije, or ), 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 p ...

on the list of the

Slovenian Democratic Party The Slovenian Democratic Party ( sl, Slovenska demokratska stranka, SDS), formerly the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia ( sl, Socialdemokratska stranka Slovenije, SDSS), is a conservative political party in Slovenia. It has been described as ...

. In the 2002 Slovenian presidential election, she ran for

President of Slovenia The president of Slovenia, officially the president of the Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Predsednik Republike Slovenije), is the head of state of the Republic of Slovenia. The position was established on 23 December 1991 when the National Assembly (S ...

with the support of the Slovenian Democratic Party and

New Slovenia New Slovenia – Christian Democrats ( sl, Nova Slovenija – Krščanski demokrati, NSi) is a Christian-democratic, conservative political party in Slovenia. Since 2018, it is led by Matej Tonin. The party was formed on 4 August 2000 following ...

. She was defeated in the run-off elections by

. In 2004, she was among the co-founders of the

liberal conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by li ...

civic platform Rally for the Republic ( sl, Zbor za republiko). In 2005 she was appointed State Prosecutor General by the centre right government of

Janez Janša Ivan Janša (; born 17 September 1958), baptized and best 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 2 ...

. During the centre-left government of

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 November 2008 to February 2012. A longtime member and former presid ...

, she entered in conflict with the Minister of Justice

Aleš Zalar Aleš is a Slavic male name. The name is used today in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Notable people with the name Aleš * Aleš Čeh (born 1968), Slovenian footballer * Aleš Řebíček (born 1967), Czech politician * Aleš Šmon (b ...

on the issue of interference of the ministry into the matters of the persecution. In 2011, she was replaced by Zvonko Fišer. In March 2012, she was appointed State Secretary at the Minister of Interior by the centre-right government of Janez Janša. She is married and has two children. She lives in Ljubljana.

References

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brezigar, Barbara 1953 births Lawyers from Ljubljana University of Ljubljana alumni Women government ministers of Slovenia Living people Justice ministers of Slovenia Politicians from Ljubljana 20th-century Slovenian lawyers Slovenian women lawyers