7

DeSUS president Karl Erjavec said after meeting SD head Dejan Židan that the parties want to act as a counterweight to the opposition Democrats (SDS), currently the strongest party in the National Assembly.

The parties agreed that the one with the better result in the election will propose a PM-designate.

When asked who the possible candidates were, Židan implied that the SD would endorse party president for PM. Erjavec added that the same was true for his party.

Erjavec underlined that the parties share the same view on the key issues, adding that they both want to protect the rights of the elderly and preserve public health care as well as public education.

Židan moreover said that the two parties already launched concrete talks on how to conduct the election campaign. They also appointed a task force to draft coalition agreement guidelines.

SD president added that the party was in talks with the non-parliamentary Solidarity party and that he expected an agreement in the coming days. Moreover, he is to meet Igor Šoltes, the head of the newly-established Believe party, in the evening.

SD moreover intends to invite for talks the recently established parties of outgoing PM Alenka Bratušek and jurist Miro Cerar. Židan said that all potential alliances would be clear by Friday next week, when the SD will hold a convention.

Meanwhile, Erjavec noted that Bratušek's party Alliance of Alenka Bratušek or ZaAB "will have to join somebody if it wants to get into the parliament". He added that she had missed her chance.

Like the SD, Desus would be open to welcoming other parties to the alliance as long as they had no shadow of corruption over them.

Head of the SDS Janez Janša on the other hand noted that DeSUS was a party of privileged pensioners established by the precursor to the SD, the United List of the Social Democrats. "The daughter is now joining the mother," he added.