Luka Mesec

Luka Mesec was born on 1 July 1987 in Kranj. He grew up in Železniki, where he finished elementary and high school, after which he enrolled in the political science program at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Social Sciences. In 2012, he received a bachelor's degree in European studies.[3] As a student, Mesec was active in the Selca Valley Student Club, the Polituss Student Political Science Club, the Mi smo univerza movement, and the Prekercev front. Since 2010, he has participated in the work of the "Labour-Punk University," an activist organization that introduced democratic socialism to Slovenian politics, and the Institute for Labor Studies.[1]

Mesec participated in the 2012–13 Slovenian protests. He was elected to the Slovenian National Assembly at the 2014 parliamentary election, and reelected in 2018. Under his leadership, The Left party connected with member parties of the Party of the European Left, including Greek Syriza, French Left Front, German The Left, and Spanish United Left. On June 1, 2022 he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities in the government of Robert Golob.[4]

Mesec advocates participatory economics, social corporate governance, tax relief for the poor, labor rights and the abolition of tax havens, and is against neoliberalism, which, in his opinion, is nothing more than a class struggle of capital against organized labor. He believes that Europe, which once had a strong social democracy and trade unions, is experiencing this class struggle under the guise of European integration, in which countries compete against each other instead of being based on reciprocity.[5]

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