Assembly of Slovenia. In 1994, most of Rupel's party merged into the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party, led by Janez Drnovšek. In 1994, he ran for mayor of Ljubljana and took office in 1995. He remained in this position until 1997, when he was appointed ambassador to the United States. Rupel returned to the post of the foreign minister of Slovenia in 2000 in the third cabinet of Janez Drnovšek. He remained in this position until July 2004, when Prime Minister Anton Rop replaced him with Ivo Vajgl. He returned to his seat in parliament, left the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party, and joined the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party. In October 2004, this party won the election and Rupel became foreign minister in Janez Janša's centre-right government when it was approved by parliament on 3 December 2004. After years of negotiations, disagreements and delays he signed the Agreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on behalf of Slovenia. During 2005 he was the chairman-in-office of the OSCE. In 2008, after the victory of the centre-left coalition led by Borut Pahor, Rupel was replaced as foreign minister by Samuel Žbogar. However, he was nominated by newly elected Prime Minister Borut Pahor as his personal Special Envoy for Foreign Affairs. Later career Rupel is a member of PEN, AAASS, the Slovenian Writer's Association, and the Association of Sociologists. In addition to Slovene, he speaks English, Croatian, German, Italian and French to varying degrees. In 2017 Rupel was an international observer in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. In 2020, Rupel was one of the candidates for the post as Representative on Freedom of the Media of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Personal life Rupel is the uncle of the Slovene pop-singer Anja Rupel. He was married to Marjetica Ana Rudolf Rupel until her death in 2022. She was previously married to Slovenian singer Lado Leskovar. Her father was Janko Rudolf, Slovenian partisan, People's Hero and politician. See also Foreign relations of Slovenia References https://web.archive.org/web/20070702073810/http://www.ukom.gov.si/eng/government/ministers/foreign-affairs/ External links December 6, 2007 Economist piece on Slovenia's EU presidency and Rupel's role in Balkan politics http://www.sta.si/en/vest.php?s=a&id=1341578 |- |- |- |- |- 1946 births Living people Slovenian Democratic Union politicians Liberal Democracy of Slovenia politicians Slovenian Democratic Party politicians Slovenian expatriates in England University of Ljubljana alumni Brandeis University alumni Alumni of the University of Essex Cleveland State University