The ruling coalition has meanwhile announced it would file for a constitutional review of the initiative on the grounds that the referendum would create unconstitutional consequences. The announcement to petition the Constitutional Court came Friday from Jože Tanko of the ruling Democrats (SDS). The court will have about a month to deliberate on the request.

It came after negotiations between the Finance Ministry and the Trade Union of Chemical, Non-Metal and Rubber Industries (KNG) reached a dead end. The union said on Saturday it had no plans to continue the negotiations.

Should the Constitutional Court allow the referendum and the union succeeds in collecting the 40,000 signatures, the referendum on the bad bank would be held in January next year.

The fate of the law establishing the Slovenia Sovereign Holding, the government's other key anti-crisis measure, is also uncertain as 30 opposition deputies, mostly from Positive Slovenia (PS), have requested a referendum on the law.

Their request, too, is likely to become subject of a constitutional review, but negotiations are still ongoing, with Finance Minister Janez Šušteršič and PS deputy Alenka Bratušek scheduled to hold talks today.