If influence from sanctioned persons, including ex-Mayor of Ventspils Aivars Lembergs, is observed for any minister in the new government, the candidate for the post of Latvian prime minister Evika Siliņa reserves the right to dismiss that minister.
The candidate said as much after her meeting with Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs on the 30th of August.
This condition will be included into documents related to the functioning of the government and will apply to all ministers regardless of their political party.
When asked if Lembergs’ surname is going to be listed in those documents, Siliņa said this topic will undergo discussions. What is important is ensuring none of people under international sanctions are “as far away from the government” as possible, said the PM candidate.
New Unity political party’s member is also strict about the condition that people not elected to the Saeima are not to be allowed to participate in government formation negotiations or the work of the new coalition.
On top of that, Siliņa believes the Combined List (AS) should take a certain amount of responsibility for the “Lembergs factor”, because there were the ones who signalled about possible “threats”. Additionally, among the party’s members there are many people who had previously worked with Lembergs.
“This, I believe, is their [Combined List] challenge – showing to residents that the people who had previously worked with Lembergs are able to demonstrate sufficient independence from him,” said Siliņa.
JV member and prime minister candidate Siliņa is still waiting for AS to decide if they want to accept the offer to work in a four-party coalition together with JV, the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) and Progressive Party (PRO). She says she is prepared to listen to AS representatives. However, she is also prepared to move forward with the government’s formation regardless.
The president said he expects parties to put effort into creating a wider ruling coalition without prolonging the negotiation process.
Nothing is reported in regards to the potential of restarting negotiations with the National Alliance (NA) even though the party believes it has yet to abandon coalition-formation negotiations.
After Krišjānis Kariņš resigned as PM, the president entrusted the creation of the new government to Siliņa. She publicly said she wants to create a five-party coalition. At the same time, she admits it will be nearly impossible to create such a large coalition.
Evika Siliņa offered AS to join JV, ZZS and PRO in the new coalition. According to her, the National Alliance (NA) has effectively pushed itself out of the coalition by drawing its red line in regards to the possibility of working with PRO.
NA, on the other hand, does not agree that this is the case. The party claims they are ready to join the coalition and that PRO should be “left overboard”.
Instead of agreeing with this government model, AS promised to present their own government model. So far AS has been in favour of preserving the existing coalition, which consists of JV, AS and NA. If the coalition is to be expanded, however, AS has made it clear they would rather go with NA.
Last week parties mostly focused on the two possible four-party coalition models. Both include JV, ZZS and AS. The point of contention is whether to invite NA or PRO to join the government as the fourth party.
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