As parties rejecting the government of PM Janez Janša are still looking for ways to form a coalition or secure an early election, Lukšič criticised the acts on the bad bank and the Slovenia Sovereign Holding as the brainchild of Šušteršič, the finance minister before the DL's departure from the coalition.

He said the same goes for the uncompromising austerity policies, which are "no longer harboured by anyone but the DL and this government".

A government that would also include the SD would have no place for "a finance minister with such policies" as Šušteršič, Lukšič said.

The former minster and DL vice-president responded by saying that the "DL should not enter a coalition with the SD if the latter insists on its positions".

While there is an agreement in principle that the party's former ministers, Šušteršič and Senko Pličanič, who ran the Justice and Public Administration Ministry, could also serve in the cabinet of a potential new government, Šušteršič told the STA that the issue was not about him.

He said that he would always be ready to make room for a better candidate, but that "the problem is the negative attitude towards the key projects that the DL supported in the incumbent government".

Pličanič meanwhile argued today strongly in favour of an early election as the only solution, saying that PM Janez Janša had failed to "act as a responsible politician and subject himself to a confidence vote" and that public discontent was growing.

Lukšič on the other hand announced the SD would very probably push ahead with the announced non-confidence motion against Education, Science, Culture and Sport Minister Žiga Turk.

He said that the SD expects things in the political arena to crystallise this week, as "it will no longer be possible to sit on two seats at the same time".