New laser ablation-inductive coupled plasma-mass spectrometry U-Pb analyses on oscillatory-zoned zircon imply Early Miocene crystallization (18.64±0.11 Ma) of the Pohorje pluton at the southeastern margin of the Eastern Alps (northern Slovenia). Inherited zircon cores indicate two crustal sources: a late Variscan magmatic population (∼270–290 Ma), and an early Neoproterozoic one (850–900 Ma) with juvenile Hf isotope composition close to that of depleted mantle. Initial ∈Hf of Miocene zircon points to an additional, more juvenile source component of the Miocene magma, which could be either a juvenile Phanerozoic crust or the Miocene mantle. The new U-Pb isotope age of the Pohorje pluton seriously questions its attribution to the Oligocene age ‘Periadriatic” intrusions. The new data imply a temporal coincidence with 19–15 Ma magmatism in the Pannonian Basin system, more specifically in the Styrian Basin. K-Ar mineral- and whole rock ages from the pluton itself and cogenetic shallow intrusive dacitic rocks (∼18–16 Ma), as well as zircon fission track data (17.7–15.6 Ma) gave late Early to early Middle Miocene ages, indicating rapid cooling of the pluton within about 3 Million years. Medium-grade Austroalpine metamorphics north and south of the pluton were reheated and subsequently cooled together. Outcrop-and micro scale structures record deformation of the Pohorje pluton and few related mafic and dacitic dykes under greenschist facies conditions. Part of the solidstate fabrics indicate E-W oriented stretching and vertical thinning, while steeply dipping foliation and NW-SE trending lineation are also present. The E-W oriented lineation is parallel to the direction of subsequent brittle extension, which resulted in normal faulting and tilting of the earlier ductile fabric at around the Early/Middle Miocene boundary; normal faulting was combined with strike-slip faulting. Renewed N-S compression may be related to late Miocene to Quaternary dextral faulting in the area. The documented syn-cooling extensional structures and part of the strike-slip faults can be interpreted as being related to lateral extrusion of the Eastern Alps and/or to back-arc rifting in the Pannonian Basin.