Miro Cerar, the leader of the 13 July general election winning SMC party, has invited all parties who made it into parliament bar the Democrats (SDS) to talks as he seeks to form a ruling coalition.
The talks are scheduled to be held from Thursday to Saturday but will be held out of the public eye, the SMC said. It is therefore unclear whether all parties will respond to the invitation.
Cerar has indicated his desire to build a rainbow coalition transcending the political spectrum, although not at the expense of firmness.
The second-placed SDS is the only party not to be invited to the talks, as per statements by Cerar made in the run-up to the election and confirmed after his win.
Cerar has berated the party for "undermining the rule of law" due to statements on the Slovenian judiciary following the conviction of its leader Janez Janša.
Likewise, the SDS has said it is not interested in forging alliances with SMC due to what it sees as a lack of clear programme.
The SMC emerged as the landslide winner of the snap poll with 34.5% of the vote. The SDS was second with 20.7%.
The Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) was third with 10.2%, followed by the SocDems (SD) with 5.98% and United Left (ZL) with 5.97%.
Rounding out the new National Assembly are the New Slovenia (NSi - 5.59%) and Alliance of Alenka Bratušek (ZaAB - 4.38%).
Pundits believe that the DeSUS, NSi, SD and ZaAB are the most likely coalition partners, and they have all indicated they were willing to engage in talks.
The United Left is seen as incompatible with the SMC, though it said today it would hold talks with the election winner.
However, the party opposes the confidentiality of talks and said it would provide information to the public.
Source: SloveniaTimes
Photo source: Beta finance
