Anton Korošec

Who was Anton Korošec?

Anton Korošec was a Slovenian political leader, a prominent member of the conservative People's Party, a priest and a noted orator.

Korošec was born in Biserjane and went to school in Ptuj and in Maribor. He studied theology and was ordained as a priest in 1895. He completed his education with a doctorate in theology from the University of Graz in 1905. He was friends with Janez Evangelist Krek and adopted his political views.

In 1907, Korošec was elected to the Reichsrat as a member of the Slovenian People's Party, where, as president of the Yugoslav Club, he read out the May Declaration, which called for all South Slavs to be unified in one state unit within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Following the break-up of Austria-Hungary, the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, of which Korošec was the president, declared the creation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 29 October 1918. Earlier, Korošec and Nikola Pašić had agreed on the terms of the Geneva Declaration, in which the Kingdom of Serbia recognized the equal rights of the different components of such a state should it join with it in a confederation.