Latvia’s premier said he’ll seek to form a new government with the country’s opposition after his coalition allies balked at a set of demands.
(Bloomberg) — Latvia’s premier said he’ll seek to form a new government with the country’s opposition after his coalition allies balked at a set of demands.
Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, one of the European Union’s harshest critics of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said talks with coalition partners had broken down.
“I will now start work on creating a different government,” Karins told reporters Friday in Riga after a meeting with the three-party coalition. The composition of the next government “is an open question,” but talks will continue with two opposition parties, he said.
Karins said he wouldn’t resign and will lead the talks on forming a new government.
The Latvian leader gave his current allies an ultimatum this week, saying he would bring an end to the current government if party leaders didn’t agree on new priorities. Those included the health and education sectors, and a program for foreign labor, or he would form a new coalition with two opposition parties.
Karins’s center-right New Unity party has led a three-way coalition since December after winning a second term in office. Tensions emerged during the May election of Edgars Rinkevics as president, with Karins forced to seek support for the vote among the opposition, outmaneuvering his coalition partners.
The opposition parties that Karins plans to court, the Union of Greens and Farmers and the center-left Progressives, would give the premier 52 votes in the 100-seat legislature in Riga, a slimmer margin than his current 54-seat majority. Karins said today that he’s always favored a larger governing coalition.
Karins won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections held in October, taking his New Unity party from eight seats in the previous legislature to 26 now.
(Adds additional Karins comment in third paragraph.)
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