Dr. Andrej Bajuk was born on 18 October
1943 in Ljubljana. His family left the country
at the beginning of May 1945. They spent
nearly three years in refugee camps in Lower
and Upper Austria, and then left for Argentina,
where they settled in Mendoza. Dr Bajuk
grew up, studied and started a family in
Mendoza.
Dr Bajuk received his first degree in economics
in Mendoza from the Universidad Nacional
de Cuyo. In a two-year international study
programme organised by the University of
Chicago he received his first Master's degree,
receiving the second jointly with his PhD
from the University of California, Berkeley.
He returned to Mendoza, where he taught
as a professor at the university. He soon
left for Washington, working for the World
Bank for a year. He then switched to the
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where
he stayed for a number of years. He held
a range of positions at the IDB, from economist
in charge of analysing social projects to
adviser to the executive vice-president.
For his last six years in Washington he
was in charge of the office of the Presidency
of the bank and a member of the board of
executive directors of the bank. From September
1994 he was IDB representative for Europe
in Paris.
Since the second half of 1999 Dr Bajuk
has spent a considerable amount of time
in Slovenia and, following the coalition
agreement between the Slovenian Christian
Democrats (SKD) and the Social Democratic
Party (SDS), assumed leadership of the expert
council developing the coalition's alternative
government programme. At the unification
congress of the SKD and Slovene People's
Party (SLS) he was elected deputy president
of the unified party. On 3 May 2000, Dr
Andrej Bajuk became the Prime Minister and
led the government until 16 November 2000.
In July 2000, the SLS+SKD - contrary to
previously agreed policy and government
stance - voted in favour of a parliamentary
motion that would enact proportional representation
electoral system. This led Prime Minister
Bajuk to quit the SLS+SKD party and in August
2000, he and his supporters, founded a new
political party called New Slovenia - Christian
People's Party.
He speaks English, French and Spanish.
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