Background
He was born in the Carniolan town of Ribnica, then part of the Austrian Empire (now in Slovenia).
He was born in the Carniolan town of Ribnica, then part of the Austrian Empire (now in Slovenia).
After finishing grammar school in 1881, he enrolled to the University of Vienna, where he studied law.
In the Parliament, he served as president of the Slovene Parliamentary Club from 1907. Between 1909 and 1911, he was president of the largest opposition coalition, the Slovene Union, and between 1912 and 1914, he was president of the Croat and Slovene Parliamentary Club. In 1912, he was named Governor of the Duchy of Carniola.
He returned to Yugoslavia in December 1922, founding the National People"s Party in elections in 1923.
He was defeated, gaining less than 2% of the vote, and thereafter withdrew from politics.
In 1890, he was among the co-founders of the Catholic Political Society in Ljubljana and in 1896, he was elected to the Austrian Parliament. He remained there until October 1918, when he left for Switzerland after a dispute in the Slovene People's Party: in contrast to party"s mainstream, he rejected the creation of an independent State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, favoring the federalization of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, instead.
From 1899, he was a member of the Catholic National Party, later renamed to Slovene People"s Party.