The president underlined that the candidates met high professional criteria and enjoyed sufficient support among political parties.

The president's office also underlined in a press release on Friday that the candidates were experienced enough to join the five-member board of governors of Banka Slovenije.

Bošnjak was proposed to the president by France Arhar, a former central bank governor, according to the daily Delo. He holds an MA in economics and served as a member of the board at Hypo Alpe Adria bank between January 2012 and October 2015.

The 41-year old was tasked by the bank headquarters in Klagenfurt to restructure the bank's portfolio. Pahor's office said that Bošnjak was successful in reducing the share of toxic loans.

He also served as a member of the board of Banka Sparkasse and worked for Volksbank-Ljubljanska banka and mobile provider Simobil.

Dolenc is a doctor of economics. He is the head of ICT and risk management at Deželna banka and also teaches at the Primorsko University. The 39-year-old also worked for Abanka, logistics company Intereuropa and the Finance Ministry, according to Delo.

According to the press release from Pahor, Dolenc is an expert in banking legislation and knows very well the role of the central bank within the European banking system and the Slovenian banking system.

To be appointed, they will need to muster majority support in parliament, which now has 30 days to take a vote on the nominations.

If appointed, they will succeed Darko Bohnec and Stanislava Zadravec Caprirolo, who had applied to the call.

In total, 16 candidates applied in the hope of becoming central bank vice governor and it was impossible to predict a favourite after Pahor's consultations with representatives of parliamentary parties on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Coming out of their meetings with the president, party representatives refused to reveal their favourites, but many openly spoke about their refusal to support the incumbents.

The opposition Democrats (SDS) objected to the pair because they had already been a part of the banking system at the time the country's banks got into trouble.

The biggest opposition party was also against Milan M. Cvikl, who is returning to Slovenia after serving as a member of the European Court of Auditors for six years.

The opposition United Left (ZL) on the other hand said that none of the candidates were to its liking, while all other parties said they had a few favourites, while refusing to name names.