The SMC Modern Centre Party has found itself at a breaking point. PM and SMC president Miro Cerar, who assured one week ago that there were no rifts within the party, has reportedly demanded that Brglez steps down from his vice-presidential party position.

It was clear immediately after the vote that the whole issue could not be resolved only through talks, a hope initially voiced by the head of the SMC deputy group Simona Kustec Lipicer. National Assembly Speaker Milan Brglez and three more deputies from the SMC party voted against the amendments to the Aliens Act. PM Miro Cerar and National Assembly Speaker Milan Brglez, the president and vice-president of the SMC party, remain on opposite banks. Unofficially, even a meeting of the SMC leadership has not managed to ease the tensions.

Mr. Cerar is allegedly demanding the resignation of Mr. Brglez as vice-president of the SMC party, but not his resignation as parliamentary president. Brglez has supposedly rejected Cerar's demand. The SMC is not commenting the situation. It is a fact that the biggest coalition party, which has only spent two and a half years in politics, faces its biggest obstacle yet. The SMC says Cerar and Brglez will continue holding talks, most likely next week. The party has no answer to how the issue will be resolved, or the likelihood of an SMC break-up or early parliamentary elections.