Milan Kučan (pronounced [ˈmíːlaŋ ˈkúːtʃan];[1][2] born 14 January 1941) is a Slovenian former politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 1991 to 2002.

He was raised in the village of Križevci, located in the largely agrarian border region of Prekmurje in the Drava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (present-day Slovenia).

[3] Kučan's family spent World War II in occupied Serbia, where over 58,000 other Slovenians were resettled from Slovenia by the Nazis.

At that time, liberal and democratic sentiment started to grow in Slovenia, as opposed to the political atmosphere of Belgrade and Serbia under Slobodan Milošević.

Advocating in favour of human rights and European democratic values and principles, Kučan, his party and Slovenia faced increasingly severe political confrontations with Belgrade and Serbia.

[citation needed] After the concept of a loose confederation had failed to gain support by the republics of Yugoslavia, Kučan favoured a controlled process of non-violent disassociation that would enable the collaboration of the former Yugoslav nations on a new, different basis.

Kučan represented Slovenia at the peace conference on former Yugoslavia in The Hague and Brussels which concluded that the former Yugoslav nations were free to determine their future as independent states.

Since 2004 he is the chairman of Forum 21, a Slovene left-wing think-tank reflecting on issues of relevance for the future development of Slovenia and its position in a global society.