KOROŠEC, ANTON. - Slovenian priest and politician, b. at Sv. Jurig on the Scavnica in Styria in 1872, d. at Belgrade on 14 Dec. 1940. In 1906, elected representative of the Slovenian People's Party, he entered the Austrian Parliament, where he remained until the fall of the Habsburg monarchy.
To him is due the famous "May Declaration" (30 May 1917), in which the union of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was called for in a free and democratic state community, which recognized only the personal sovereignty of the Habsburgs. As president of the National Council of Ljubljana and Zagreb, after the fall of the monarchy he concluded with Pasic the "Pact of Geneva," which gave life to the new Serbo-Croat-Slovene State (SHS). He took part several times in the government and in 1928 also held its presidency. Subsequently, the Slovenian People's Party having been dissolved owing to the worsening of the contrasts between Serbo-Croats on one side and Slovenes on the other, he went into opposition, and in 1932 he was sentenced to confinement by the dictatorial regime established by the Serbo-Croats. He returned after the assassination of King Alexander, having associated himself with the national mourning, and received again (1935) the Ministry of the Interior together with the Presidency of the Senate.