Topic of the Week: Problems of the "Great Coalition"

Ljubljana, 22 January - Since October 1994, when Foreign Minister Lojze Peterle (President of the Slovene Christian Democrats - SKD) resigned from his post, Slovenia is without a foreign minister. Premier Janez Drnovšek took the ministry over for a period of three months. His temporary function expires on 1 February. Intense negotiations between the main parties of the ruling coalition - the SKD and Drnovšek's LDS (Liberal Democracy of Slovenia) continued through last week in order to solve the problem of who the new foreign minister will be. Agreement on several other SKD - LDS problems is a basis for successful solution of this questions. The third government party The Associated List of Social Democrats (ZLSD) does not take sides and warns that it does not want to lose government departments in the disputes of other two partners.