Marjan Šarec (born 2 December 1977) is a Slovenian politician, actor and comedian who served as

Prime Minister of Slovenia The prime minister of Slovenia, officially the president of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (), is the Head of government, head of the Government of Slovenia, Government of the Slovenia, Republic of Slovenia. There have been nine offi ...

from 2018 to 2020. He also served as the

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

of Prime Minister

Robert Golob Robert Golob (born 23 January 1967) is a Slovenian businessman and politician, serving as Prime Minister of Slovenia and leader of the Freedom Movement since 2022. Early life and education Golob obtained his PhD in electrical engineering at th ...

from June 2022 to July 2024 when he was elected to the European Parliament. He started his career as a comedian and satirist before entering politics. Elected twice as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Kamnik Kamnik (; ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, pp. 26–27. or ''Stein in Oberkrain'') is the ninth-largest town of Slovenia, located in t ...

(2010–2018), Šarec ran in the 2017 presidential election, narrowly losing to the incumbent

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 ...

in the run-off. He entered the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

in the parliamentary election of 2018 with his party, the List of Marjan Šarec. On 17 August 2018, he became Prime Minister of Slovenia. On 27 January 2020 he announced his resignation as Prime Minister.

Education and early career in comedy

Marjan Šarec commenced his education by joining Marija Vera primary school in Duplica neighbourhood of

. Subsequently, he enrolled in a vocational course at the High School for Woodcraft 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 ...

. After graduating from high school in 1996 and following the advice of director Marjan Bevk, Šarec graduated as an actor from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (part of 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 2001. In the following years, he was actively involved with the Slovenian National television, appearing in Sašo Hribar's radio show Radio Ga-Ga and TV show Hri-bar. Šarec was mostly working as a comedian and political satirist. During this time, his famous stage persona was ''Ivan Serpentinšek'', a grouchy rural character from

Upper Carniola Upper Carniola ( ; ; ) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The largest town in the region is Kranj, and other urban centers include Kamnik, Jesenice, Jesenice, Jesenice, Domžale and ...

. He also imitated several famous people, including former President of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek, Karel Erjavec,

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

, Anton Rop, Jelko Kacin, Janez Janša,

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 ...

, and others. He was also working as a journalist and editor.

Political career

Local politics

In the 2010

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

, Šarec ran for office of mayor of

, a town in north-central Slovenia. In a rare case among Slovenian media personalities who attempted to enter national or local politics, Šarec was successful. After finishing second in the first round, he narrowly won the runoff. After being a member of Zoran Janković's Positive Slovenia party, Šarec entered the 2014 local election with his own political list and was reelected in the first round with almost two thirds of the vote. After becoming an elected official, Šarec retired his stage personas and became fully committed to the work of the mayor.

Presidential campaign

In May 2017, Šarec announced he would run in the upcoming presidential election, to take place on October 22. Despite the media reminding him of his acting career, Šarec stated he was completely serious about the candidacy, as "the function of the president should be treated as a serious one". Criticizing the incumbent president

for treating the presidential function as a celebrity, Šarec was viewed as a potentially strong candidate, one who could attract the younger generation of voters and voters leaning towards the left side of political spectrum. In the first round of the election, Šarec won 25% of the vote, resulting in a run-off against Pahor on 12 November, in which he narrowly lost.

Prime Minister of Slovenia

In June 2018, Šarec participated in the parliamentary election with the List of Marjan Šarec. The party won 12.6% of the vote, resulting in 13 MPs. LMŠ became the second-biggest party in the National Assembly. On 17 August 2018, he was elected as the new head of government, leading the 13th Government of Slovenia. On 27 January 2020, Šarec resigned from the post, following the resignation of the Minister of Finance, who resigned because of the proposed changes to the health-related legislation.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarec, Marian 1977 births Living people 21st-century Slovenian male actors Defence ministers of Slovenia Mayors of places in Slovenia People from Kamnik Positive Slovenia politicians Slovenian comedians Slovenian journalists Slovenian male stage actors Slovenian male television actors Television people from Ljubljana MEPs for Slovenia 2024–2029