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| - Slovenia's president sat down with parliamentary parties on Tuesday to explore whether a new coalition government could be formed to avoid fresh elections following the resignation of the country's prime minister last week. Marjan Sarec, head of the centre-left LMS (Marjan Sarec List) party, stepped down as premier on January 27, calling for a snap election amid infighting within his minority five-party coalition government. But President Borut Pahor is looking to see if there is a chance of forming a new government without having to call a new vote, given that the last snap elections were held only in 2018. And on Monday, he had urged "all those responsible... to thoroughly consider the situation." Pahor met with officials of the two largest parties -- the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party or SDS and the LMS -- on Tuesday and will talk with the representatives of seven other parties later this week. If nothing comes out nof those talks, all parties will have two more rounds of negotiations to try to hammer out a solution, failing which parliament will be dissolved and early elections called. Following the meeting on Tuesday, SDS official Danijel Krivec said his party was prepared for early elections, but first wanted to explore the possibility of forming a coalition government. SDS won the most votes in the last election in 2018, but its leader Janez Jansa failed to win over sufficient allies, paving the way for political newcomer Sarec, a 42-year-old former comedian, to form a centre-left minority coalition and become Slovenia's youngest-ever prime minister. The political landscape in the Alpine eurozone member is highly fragmented, with no fewer than nine parties in the 90-seat parliament representing a population of just over two million. bk/jza/spm
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