Ljudmila Novak

Ljudmila Novak (born 1 August 1959) is a Slovenian politician and a former Member of the European Parliament. She is the president of the New Slovenia – Christian People's Party. Since 21 December 2011, she has been the vice-president of the Slovenian National Assembly.
She was born in Maribor. She studied Slovene and German language at the University of Maribor. Between 1982 and 2001, she worked as a school teacher, first in Murska Sobota, and then in Višnja Gora and finally in Moravče. She entered politics in 2001, when she was elected mayor of Moravče. In 2002, she became a member of the Executive Council of New Slovenia party. In 2004, she was elected to the European Parliament. As a member of the European People's Party, she was named a member of the Committee on Culture and Education. She is also a substitute for the Committee on Regional Development, a member of the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Mercosur.
After the Slovenian parliamentary election of 2008, when New Slovenia failed to gain any seats in the National Assembly (NA), the lower house of the Slovenian parliament, Ljudmila Novak was elected president of the party. At the 2011 Slovenian parliamentary election, the party won 4 seats in the NA.
Novak is well known for her advocacy against same-sex marriages, civil unions, and LGBT adoption. In her role as the president of New Slovenia, she stated that homosexuality is not normal, that same sex relationships are less stable than opposite sex relationships, and that gay people should not be able to adopt.
She learned and practiced the language Esperanto in her youth, but doesn't actively speak it today. She still understands it. In 2007 she participated in the 7th congress of the European-Union in Maribor, Slovenia.
On the 21st of January, 2009 she presented to the European Parliament in the Committee of Culture (under the sign PE 416.668v01-00) in the framework of the debate/opinion on multilingualism of Vasco Graca Moura three proposals for change in article 4, touching on Esperanto.