Latvia’s prime minister to step down as coalition stalls
Relations with the coalition soured after it failed to field a joint candidate a presidential election in May
14 August 2023 - 15:40
byAndrius Sytas and Janis Laizans
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Riga — Latvian prime minister Krisjanis Karins announced his resignation on Monday, blaming a breakdown in relations with parts of his multiparty government.
“This Thursday I will submit the resignation of myself and this cabinet to the president,” he told a press conference.
Alongside its Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia is a leading voice in pushing the EU and Nato to increase pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Karins’s centre-right New Unity party won a national election in October 2022, gaining 26 of 100 seats in a fractured parliament where seven parties are represented. He blamed coalition partners “blocking the work for prosperity and economic growth” for Monday’s decision, according to a posting on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Karins’s party governed the EU nation of 1.9-million, with support from the conservative National Alliance and the United List of smaller parties giving him a narrow parliamentary majority.
But relations with the coalition soured after it failed to field a joint candidate a presidential election in May.
On Friday, Karins made an abortive attempt to bring more parties into government.
They included the left-leaning Progressives party and the Greens and the Farmers Union, a coalition of conservative groups fronted by Aivars Lembergs, the mayor of port town Ventspils who was put on a US sanctions list for alleged corruption in 2019.
Karins’s New Unity party plans to select its candidate for prime minister on Wednesday, he said.
President Edgars Rinkevics has responsibility for giving a mandate to a new prime minister to try to form a government. That candidate would also face a parliamentary vote of confidence.
Latvia’s next parliamentary election is scheduled for 2026.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Latvia’s prime minister to step down as coalition stalls
Relations with the coalition soured after it failed to field a joint candidate a presidential election in May
Riga — Latvian prime minister Krisjanis Karins announced his resignation on Monday, blaming a breakdown in relations with parts of his multiparty government.
“This Thursday I will submit the resignation of myself and this cabinet to the president,” he told a press conference.
Alongside its Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia is a leading voice in pushing the EU and Nato to increase pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Karins’s centre-right New Unity party won a national election in October 2022, gaining 26 of 100 seats in a fractured parliament where seven parties are represented. He blamed coalition partners “blocking the work for prosperity and economic growth” for Monday’s decision, according to a posting on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Karins’s party governed the EU nation of 1.9-million, with support from the conservative National Alliance and the United List of smaller parties giving him a narrow parliamentary majority.
But relations with the coalition soured after it failed to field a joint candidate a presidential election in May.
On Friday, Karins made an abortive attempt to bring more parties into government.
They included the left-leaning Progressives party and the Greens and the Farmers Union, a coalition of conservative groups fronted by Aivars Lembergs, the mayor of port town Ventspils who was put on a US sanctions list for alleged corruption in 2019.
Karins’s New Unity party plans to select its candidate for prime minister on Wednesday, he said.
President Edgars Rinkevics has responsibility for giving a mandate to a new prime minister to try to form a government. That candidate would also face a parliamentary vote of confidence.
Latvia’s next parliamentary election is scheduled for 2026.
Reuters
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