Latvia’s President Egils Levits has changed his mind about the upcoming presidential elections and will not run as a candidate, as reported by the State President’s Chancellery Media Centre Justīne Deičmane.
In the announcement released by the centre, Levits explained that the coalition is divided on the topic of the state president. The National Alliance and New Unity have already supported his candidacy, whereas the Combined List and opposition party Latvia in First Place have decided to support a different candidate.
“No one has a clear majority. In this situation there is a possibility of parties that do not represent Latvia’s Latvian and western-focused course to have a decisive role in elections. It would be naive to imagine the votes of these political parties could be given away just like that, without any political intent. We would have to pay a price for that,” said Levits.
According to him, this could be a signal that pro-Kremlin and oligarch-related individuals could co-decide on such an important topic like election of Latvia’s president. This, in turn, would leave a mark on the president’s reputation and make it harder for him to represent Latvia’s interests and maintain a trust-full dialogue with Latvia’s allies. It could cause doubts about Latvia’s political course.
“In the fragile security situation Latvia is in right now, it would send the wrong signal to our own citizens, allies and Moscow,” said the president.
Levits also said that in 2019 he was elected for four years. He stresses that he performed his duties to the best of his ability and conscience. Previously Levits said he is prepared to run for re-election, stressing that the coalition needs to agree on a single candidate.
“Re-election is not a goal for me. Considering the brewing “de facto” coalition with pro-Kremlin and oligarch-related political parties, I have decided to not run in presidential elections on the 31st of May,” said the president.
Levits invites the founder of the Combined List and businessman Uldis Pīlēns to act the same way. The president believes this would allow the coalition in to agree on a presidential candidate in Latvia’s best interests.
Levits thanked the National Alliance and New Unity for their support, as well as all like-minded people who share his views about Latvia’s national values and the country’s political place in Europe.
The president said he has always stood for a Latvian and westernised Latvia, for values protected by the preamble of the Constitution, the adoption of which he suggested in 2014.
LETA previously reported that so far there have been two potential presidential candidates announced in Latvia: Levits and Pīlēns. The latter was officially proposed as a candidate by the Combined List on Wednesday, the 10th of May. National Alliance had planned to officially announce Levits as their candidate.
Neither of them have a confident majority of support in the Saeima. The coalition still has not agreed on support for either candidate. PM Krišjānis Kariņš also mentioned on Wednesday that his party may yet select their own candidate.
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