Drnovšek's presidency was highly controversial. In the first three years in office, he rarely appeared in public, save for the most important official duties. In 2006, however, a change of style became visible. He launched several campaigns in foreign policy, such as a failed humanitarian mission to
Darfur and a proposal for the solution of the political crisis in
Kosovo. On January 30, 2006, he left the
Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. Shortly afterwards, he founded the
Movement for Justice and Development and became its first president. He claimed this was not meant to be a political movement, but rather a wide initiative, aiming to "raise human consciousness and make the world a better place". On June 26, 2006, he announced that he would not be running for a second term in an interview on
TV Slovenia.
Conflict with the Government in 1989 The
2004 legislative election brought further changes and a political swing to the right.
Janez Janša, the leader of a right-wing coalition, formed the new government. In Slovenia, this was the first time after 1992 that the President and the Prime Minister had represented opposing political factions for more than a few months. Between 2002 and 2004, the relationship between President Drnovšek and Janez Janša, then leader of the opposition, were considered more than good and in the first year of cohabitation, no major problems arose. In the beginning of his term, Drnovšek, who was ill with
kidney cancer, stayed out of public view. When he reemerged in late 2005 he had already changed his lifestyle: he had become a
vegan (though one of his colleagues in a televised interview mentioned their regular Sunday visits to a pizzeria in Maxi market, Ljubljana), moved out of the capital into the countryside, and withdrew from party politics completely, ending his already frozen membership in the Liberal Democracy. Drnovšek's new approach to politics prompted one political commentator to nickname him "Slovenia's
Gandhi". in 2005 The relationship between Drnovšek and the government quickly became tense. Disagreements began with Drnovšek's initiatives in foreign politics, aimed at solving major foreign conflicts, including those in
Darfur and
Kosovo. Drnovšek's former collaborator and close political ally until 2004. A major clash between the two happened in Summer 2006, when disagreement arose over Drnovšek's attempt to intervene in the Darfur conflict. The disagreements moved from issues of domestic politics in October 2006, when Drnovšek publicly criticised the treatment of the Strojans, a
Romani family whose neighborhood had forced them to relocate, which in turn had subjected them to police supervision and limitation of movement. The friction continued over the appointment of other state official nominees, including
Constitutional Court judges. Although the President's political support suffered after his personal transformation, the polls nevertheless showed public backing of the President against an increasingly unpopular Government. The tension reached its apex in May 2007, when the newly appointed director of the
Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency Matjaž Šinkovec unclassified several documents from the period before 2004, revealing, among other, that Drnovšek had used secret service funds for personal purposes between 2002 and 2004. The President reacted with a harsh criticism of the government's policies, accusing the ruling coalition of abusing its power for personal delegitimations and labeled the then current Prime Minister
Janez Janša as "the leader of the negative guys" In the last months in office, Drnovšek continued his attacks on Prime Minister Janez Janša, who mostly remained silent on the issue. Drnovšek accused Janša of "fostering proto-totalitarian tendencies". He became a
blogger (Janez D), signing his posts as "Janez D" and expressing opinions on various issues from foreign policy, environmentalism, human relationships, religion, animal rights and personal growth. In his last months in office, he withdrew to a reclusive life again, devoting his time to the
Movement for Justice and Development and the popularization of his lifestyle and views.
Lifestyle changes During his time in office as the President of Slovenia, he wrote and published several books in
spiritual philosophy, including
Misli o življenju in zavedanju ("Thoughts on Life and Consciousness"),
Zlate misli o življenju in zavedanju ("Golden Thoughts on Life and Consciousness"),
Bistvo sveta ("The Essence of the World"), and his last one called
Pogovori or Dialogues. According to his own accounts, it took him only two or three weeks to write each of his books, due to – in his words – "the higher consciousness" he was able to access. His lifestyle was a mixture of elements from various traditions, including
Hindu religious thought and the non-attachment of
Buddhist philosophy. He also valued the indigenous traditions of the world. For example, he was present at the inauguration of
Evo Morales, the first native American president of
Bolivia, and later hosted Bolivian ethnic musicians in the
Presidential Palace in Ljubljana. After his cancer diagnosis, Drnovšek became a
vegan and claimed that this greatly improved his health. Because of his new lifestyle and the content of his books and blogs, he was often regarded as an adherent of the
New Age movement, although he rejected such a qualification as being too narrow. ==Personal life and death==