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The letter was posted on the party's web page only days after the PM announced on Friday that she would seek a vote of confidence and urged that an election congress of the party be held soon.

In the party vote she is likely to face PS founder and first president, Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković. He in turn held a press conference today but did not reveal whether he will actually run for party head.

Bratušek took over as party president just over a year ago after Janković could not account for more than EUR 2m and none of the potential coalition partners wanted to cooperate with him.

The prime minister said today that a party, which does not know who its real head is, cannot function well and attract supporters, said Bratušek, who admitted that she had not been firm enough in the party nor in the government.

"Our party too must close its ranks for the party itself, for the government and above all for the country. Nobody has the right to put their personal interests before those of the country and the citizens."

The party emerged victorious from the 2011 general election because of Janković, the PM said, adding that things had changed after the vote in a direction nobody wanted.

She admitted in the letter that she was hurt when Janković requested a congress last autumn. The vote was later postponed by the party's executive body, as Janković's victory would likely cause the coalition to collapse.

The PM said that she tried everything in her power so that the PS would see only one candidate vying for party president, "so that the PS would still have the prime minister and the mayor of the capital".

"Unfortunately Janković decided differently last week and informed MPs about his decision," Bratušek said in the letter. Therefore, she decided to "break this painful situation with two tests"; the confidence vote and a PS congress.

Tensions have been growing in the party for a while and became very apparent last week, when several of its deputies endorsed an ouster motion against Interior Minister Gregor Virant despite the fact that coalition partners agreed not to back ouster motions against government ministers.