Ljubljana - The National Assembly could take a vote on whether to appoint Robert Golob as Slovenia's next prime minister as early as Wednesday, 25 May, Speaker Urška Klakočar Zupančič and President Borut Pahor decided at their first meeting on Tuesday.

The names of the heads of deputy groups in the new parliament will be made known this Thursday. Pahor will send them on Friday invitations to formal consultations on the PM-designate, which will take place next Monday.

Addressing reporters, Pahor said he and Klakočar Zupančič had talked about their duties at the time of the formation of a new government and would both do their best to make procedures as effective as possible.

He said he worked together with all speakers and parliament line-ups and all governments and prime ministers under the same criteria and measures.

"This has allowed me to establish high levels of mutual trust during my ten-year career as president," he said, expressing the hope the same would hold true of cooperation with the current speaker.

Pahor has served under five different governments during his two terms as the head of state. Robert Golob's will be the sixth before a new president is elected later this year.

"I believe the National Assembly, the government and the president of the republic, and rule of law institutions must function smoothly and behave respectfully," Pahor said.

Those institutions must in his view also be critical of each other, provided they exercise restraint and respect each other's independence.

Klakočar Zupančič said she was looking forward to working productively together with Pahor. "As far as we had the chance to get to know each other, I believe we share the same values and mutual respect," she said.

Golob is planning to form a new centre-left government by 3 June. Apart from his Freedom Movement it will also include the Social Democrats (SD) and the Left.

Asked about the timetable to form the new government, Klakočar Zupančič said they would make the effort to meet the target date, however, not everything depended on institutions but also on the circumstances.