"It is time that the fighting between the parties in the new opposition is pushed to the background and we look for a way to cooperate better," Dejan Židan said in an open letter to the leaders of the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), Left and Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) on Monday.

Židan invited the party leaders to a discussion on common principles of cooperation. "It is paramount for democratic development that the opposition act as a check on power," he wrote.

In a statement at the National Assembly, Židan said he was not seeking to become leader of the opposition, he merely wanted to improve trust, communication and cooperation between the four parties.

It would be enough for the party presidents to occasionally meet on an equal footing and their deputy groups occasionally table legislation in a coordinated fashion, he said.

While the parties will continue to have differences in opinion, "this may not become the basic mode of communication" between them; if they fight out in the open "the rightist government will be the only one to benefit," he said.