If Bratusek is appointed, it is uncertain if she will be able to form a government, which depends on the alignment of the programme differences between the parties that would make up her cabinet. The biggest differences refer to how to rehabilitate the banking system and the privatisation of state companies.
Until the election of a new government, incumbent PM Janez Jansa will lead the negotiations with Croatia on the Ljubljanska Banka issue even if parliament gives him a vote of no confidence on Wednesday.
If a new government is formed but there is still no agreement on the bank issue, Karl Erjavec would return to the negotiations. In the new government, he would again be appointed foreign minister.
Since the beginning of the political crisis, both Jansa and Erjavec, who parted ways also with regard to Ljubljanska Banka, have been claiming that the ratification of Croatia's European Union accession treaty is a priority that must not be endangered by the political situation in Slovenia, since all political parties agree to the ratification, provided the bank issue is solved by then.
Jansa has said the ratification, which requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority, is one of three priorities for his cabinet and that he could not move it were his government to step down, as suggested by some.
Erjavec has said a number of times lately that the bank issue and the ratification must not be part of possible pre-election calculations. Since Jansa withdrew him as the negotiator on the bank issue even before he resigned as foreign minister, it is uncertain if an agreement can be reached before a meeting between Jansa and Croatian PM Zoran Milanovic due on March 10.
Jansa believes it is possible, but the new negotiator, Tone Kajzer, said on Saturday that tight deadlines could sometimes be a hindrance.
If the political situation in Slovenia is not stabilised soon and the Ljubljanska Banka issue remains unsolved, matters in Slovenia could become complicated because of the deadline for the accession treaty ratification.
The government must put a bill on the ratification to parliament, but the incumbent government, with only six ministers, barely has a quorum for adopting decisions.