[1] Between 2007 and 2012 he was president of the left liberal party Zares and between November 2008 and June 2011, he served as Minister for Science and Higher Education of Slovenia.

In November of the same year, he was appointed Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology in the centre left government of Borut Pahor.

[3] His resignation was followed by other ministers of the Zares party later in the same month,[4] opening a government crisis, which was resolved in September 2011 with the vote of no confidence to Borut Pahor and the calling of early elections in December 2011.

Lahovnik, at the time Minister of Economy, mentioned Golobič's alleged misuse of political influence in order to favor his business partners as one of the reasons for his break with the party.

[8] As a response, Golobič demanded that Lahovnik stepped down from his position of Minister of Economy and qualified his behavior as "Brutus-like", that is, treacherous.