Milan Kucan (born 1941), first president of the independent Republic of Slovenia, has set the tone for democratic reform in the former Yugoslavian states.

The first president of an independent Slovenia, the northernmost former Yugoslavian state, Milan Kucan has led his new nation in economic and political progress unrivalled in eastern and central Europe in the period following the breakup of the Soviet Union. He is a popular politician who, according to the "Central Europe Online" website, believes in "supraparty politics" and encourages the participation of all the citizens of Slovenia. The first former Yugoslav state to enter negotiations for admittance to the European Union (EU) and one of the first considered for possible future admittance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Slovenia is western-oriented and free from the strong ethnic divisions of neighbors like Bosnia and Serbia. Kucan's leadership has helped to keep his country moving toward...