She thanked the MPs for the trust and added that she hoped she would be up to her new obligations.

With the appointment of Jadek Pensa, female judges will have the majority in the nine-strong Constitutional Court for the first time in Slovenia's history.

The new judge was the second nominee of President Danilo Tuerk, after MPs rejected his initial candidate Rado Bohinc, the chancellor of University of Primorsko, on 30 March.

In choosing the supreme judge nominee, Tuerk decided to forego the six applicants who applied to the second call for candidates for the position, nominating Jadek Pensa instead.

She was endorsed by the the parliamentary Credentials and Privileges Commission by 10 votes to 4 last week and had been promised support from all deputy groups bar the opposition Democrats (SDS) and People's Party (SLS).

While the coalition parties praised her professional qualities, SDS deputy group leader Joze Tanko said ahead of the vote that his party could not shake the feeling that this was another case of "favouring the lawyers' lobby", which is now getting direct influence over decisions of the Constitutional Court.

Jadek Pensa had previously been nominated for the post by former President Janez Drnovsek in 2007, but was rejected in a time of tensions between Drnovsek and the then Prime Minister Janez Jansa of the SDS.

Jadek Pensa, who was born in 1959, was elected a district court judge in 1995. In 1997, she was appointed to the position of senior judge at Ljubljana Higher Court.

Since 2008, she has worked as judge at the Supreme Court's commercial department.

In Slovenia, judges are allowed to hold a single nine-year term in the Constitutional Court.