Ljubljana - Coalition SMC leader Zdravko Počivalšek plans to have a word with Prime Minister Janez Janša to discuss what he considers Janša's offensive remark about the Modern Centre Party (SMC) he made on Monday while responding to a question from SMC MP Janja Sluga in parliament.

"I will talk to the prime minister about his statement, which was offensive and also damaging for future relations in the coalition," Počivalšek said in a written statement for the STA on Tuesday, adding he expected Janša to show more discipline and self-restraint amid a difficult epidemic situation.

In Monday's questions' time in parliament, SMC deputy group leader Sluga said that the anti-coronavirus measures would have been more efficient if government representatives had been able to communicate them better.

As part of his reply, Janša said "it is a little bit off the mark to listen to advice on communication from the chair of the deputy group of a party with a 1% approval rating to the prime minister and the president of a party that has thirty times higher ratings".

He also said that "those who threw in the towel a year ago, can hardly be smart now", in reference to the SMC being part of the previous government, whose Prime Minister Marjan Šarec stepped down at the end of January 2020.

Počivalšek said the SMC was a party of dialogue and cooperation which had been subject to a media pogrom for its decision to enter a coalition with centre-right parties.

Although the SMC is happy with the implementation of the coalition agreement, he said such statements severely burdened its continuing the cooperation.

Yesterday, he said that that the SMC was making an effort to act as an integrating force and that it wielded major power which it would realise at the next general election.