The government is also expected to adopt the National Reform Programme for 2015/16 and the accompanying Stability Programme this week.

The nomination, along with the candidacy of Social Democrats (SD) MP Andreja Katič for the new defence minister, is expected to be sent to parliament by the end of the week.

Makovec Brenčič, a full professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics, is expected to replace Klavdija Markež of the ruling Modern Centre Party (SMC), who resigned on 1 April after only five days on the job following revelations that her master's thesis was plagiarised.

Markež was already a replacement, succeeding Stanka Setnikar Cankar, the minister from the original line-up of the Miro Cerar government who stepped down in March due to a scandal involving high fees she made on the side as university professor and dean.

Andreja Katič, a deputy speaker of the National Assembly, was meanwhile put forward by her own party on 21 April following the ousting of Defence Minister Janko Veber over a scandal surrounding his order to the military intelligence agency to probe the sale of telco Telekom Slovenije.

If the two nominations are sent to parliament this week, the candidates will be heard before the relevant parliamentary committees after Labour Day holidays.

Unofficially, the extraordinary session of the National Assembly at which the MPs will vote on both nominees would be scheduled for 13 May.

The government also needs to wrap up the National Reform Programme for 2015/16 and the accompanying Stability Programme and send them to the European Commission by the end of April. The former is expected to be adopted on Wednesday.

Last week the coalition defined certain fiscal measures that suggest that the existing austerity measures which were adopted at the height of recession will be only partially done away with next year. This means that some of the existing limits to social transfers and public sector pay would be abolished.