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Cerar is being put forward by the Positive Slovenia (PS), with the party's interim leader, Alenka Bratušek, telling reporters on Tuesday that "if he decides to become PM-designate, he has the support of all 27 PS deputies".

Citizens' List (DL) president Gregor Virant said Cerar would "definitely" get the votes of his party, while Karl Erjavec, president of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), told the STA Cerar would "probably be endorsed".

Cerar was a guest at an evening news show on RTV Slovenija yesterday, where he neither confirmed nor denied being asked to lead a new government.

The news comes as parties scramble to bring down Janša's government, which has been reduced to a minority government after the DL quit the coalition and will shrink further as DeSUS and the People's Party (SLS) are scheduled to leave in the coming weeks.

With Janša refusing to step down in the wake of a graft report which found him running afoul Slovenia's public office integrity legislation, the only way to bring about a new government is to hold a no-confidence vote, but the law stipulates that a new PM-designate needs to be put forward for this.

The current consensus appears to be that a semi-technocrat government would take over for an interim period, complete key reforms and then step down to allow early elections.

The plan is riddled with uncertainty, though, as the Social Democrats (SD), who are key to securing a majority, do not appear keen on an interim government.

SD president Igor Lukšič told the press today that the interim government should serve primarily to replace Janša's cabinet, while further talks are needed to determine whether there is "potential for more".

Moreover, smaller parties have made their adherence to a new coalition conditional on Zoran Janković fully stepping down as PS leader (he has only frozen his status), as he too was found by the Corruption Prevention Commission of violating integrity legislation. Janković said yesterday he was not thinking about doing that.

On the other hand People's Party (SLS) decided not to support (for now) project government.
The People's Party (SLS), which plans to leave the coalition in March, will not participate in the formation of a centre-left government, the party's president Radovan Žerjav said on the sidelines of a session of the SLS's executive council on Tuesday. He said the SLS would operate as a constructive opposition. According to Žerjav, the SLS will leave the coalition before the session of parliament scheduled for early March, with the step probably also including a resignation of the party's two cabinet ministers.

After that the party will act as an opposition and support activities that would lead to an early election as soon as possible. The announcement comes as the opposition and the parties that have left the coalition in the wake of a graft report finding PM Janez Janša of running afoul the country's integrity legislation are conducting talks on a new PM-designate who would lead a project government.

The move means that the fate of a potential new coalition is largely in the hands of the opposition SocDems, who have so far been the loudest proponents of an early election. They however did not exclude today the possibility of backing a new government led by constitutional expert Miro Cerar.

While the said SD it would wait for the legal expert's official consent to run as PM-designate before revealing its position, support for Cerar has been indicated by the Positive Slovenia (PS), the Citizens' List (DL), and Pensioners' Party (DeSUS).

The SLS executive council is also debating today the names of candidates running to replace Žerjav, who is withdrawing from politics, at the party's 2 March congress.