Ljubljana - Robert Golob, the head of the election-winning Freedom Party and the most likely prime minister-designate, suggested after a new round of talks with the prospective coalition partners that the new government could have up to four new ministries. More about this and names of the ministerial candidates will be known next Wednesday.

After Friday's meeting with the leaders of the Social Democrats (SD) and Left, Golob said that the future coalition would pay particular attention to certain segments and "strengthen" them, including by dedicating special departments to them.

He said that these segments were climate change policies, inter-generational solidarity, digitalisation and regional development.

Golob noted that if he used business terminology, the future government would make additional investments in these four segments, "including from the aspect of organisation of public administration".

He also told the press that the government departments had been distributed among the three parties "in principle", and that they were now finally in a situation where "we can start picking names for ministers".

According to Golob, the names of candidates for ministers will be known next Wednesday, when the three parties meet again.

"We are still on pace in terms of the timeline that we have set ourselves," Golob said, while SD leader Tanja Fajon added that the parties would "quickly form a strong and stable government" and that they were sticking to the timeline.

Asked which ministries would be merged or split into multiple ministries, Golob said that this would be known next Wednesday, when all ministerial candidates would be confirmed.

As the current government has 17 departments, the leader of the Freedom Movement said that this number would be changed "in principle". While the number is not final yet, it is likely that it will be higher, he added.

Golob said that the election-winning party was also in talks with the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) and Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB), the two members of the informal pre-election Constitutional Arch Coalition (KUL) that failed to make it to parliament.

He said that the talks were about including members of the two parties in the new government, noting that if they were indeed to get governmental posts, these would be "coming from the quota of the Freedom Movement".