Borut Šuklje was born in Ljubljana on 24 June 1958. After graduating in philosophy and comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts in 1984, he taught philosophy and sociology at secondary school level. He stood in the elections of 1990, and was elected to parliament on the Socialist Party of Slovenia list, before later joining Liberal Democracy of Slovenia.

Between 1990 and 1992 he was programming director at RTV Slovenia, and then took over the Ministry of Culture, where he was minister from May 1992 to January 1993. He continued his career at the Government Information Office, which he headed from 1994 to 1997. Between 1997 and 1999 he was one of the closest colleagues of the prime minister at that time, Dr Janez Drnovšek, and served as the secretary-general of the government. He was then Minister for Interior in 1999 and 2000. After serving as Slovenia’s ambassador to Serbia, he worked as an international consultant specialising in south-eastern Europe and the western Balkans.

Right up until his untimely death he was active as a commentator on current affairs in Slovenia and, especially, in international community and was also a highly esteemed and much-followed columnist in a number of Slovenian media outlets. His final column entitled The protest they don’t know how to listen to was published in Delo on 30 May of this year. It was about current events at RTV Slovenia.