The PM's office would neither confirm nor deny the news. Nor would the coalition partners make any comments. It meanwhile remains unclear whether the PM has also found a candidate for the new health minister.

President of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) Karl Erjavec, who has been in talks with Bratušek over the candidates to fill the two vacant ministerial posts, is cited by Delo as saying that he found Dragonja an acceptable candidate for economy minister.

He noted though that Dragonja was not a DeSUS member, which meant he would make part of the ministerial quota of Bratušek's Positive Slovenia (PS).

Since the PS will also put forward a candidate for the health minister, being that DeSUS no longer wants the department, this could mean that DeSUS could get the Office for Slovenians Abroad and that Minister Tina Komel would have to leave office, Delo speculates.

Erjavec says that his party will present its own candidate, most likely for the diaspora minister, on Friday.

Born in 1954, Dragonja served as economy minister in the Janez Drnovšek government in 1997-1999. He was at the helm of Lek between 1988 and 1999, when the Ljubljana-based company was sold to Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. Dragonja has since 2008 served as director of the NLB bank's Russian subsidiary.