Financial expert Alenka Bratusek is expected to get a one-year mandate to pull struggling eurozone member Slovenia back from the brink of a financial bailout when parliament votes on Wednesday to oust conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa.

Parliament's scheduled "constructive no-confidence vote" takes place at the height of a financial crisis in the country which is wrestling with recession and a huge amount of bad loans strangling its banks.

Centre-left Positive Slovenia, led by Bratusek, struck a deal last week with the Social Democrats and two of Jansa's former allies to give her the reins for a year, with an option to keep her at the helm until an election due in 2015.

If confirmed, Bratusek, who turns 43 in March, will become Slovenia's first female prime minister. She oversaw the state budget at the Finance Ministry for six years before entering parliament in December 2011.

Slovenia, a former star of post-communist transition, has been gripped by street protests against austerity and corruption since November, as unemployment hit a 14-year high.

The new government will have to reform the banking system, increase labor flexibility, sell some state firms and possibly raise the value added tax to reduce the budget gap.

Reuters