Parties that compose the potential coalition in Latvia – New Unity (JV), Combined List (AS) and National Alliance (NA) – are not in agreement about the adoption of a responsibility mechanism for the next government. Latvia’s President Egils Levits, on the other hand, plans to nominate the next prime minister once sufficient progress has been made in the development of the government’s declaration.
Latvia’s President Egils Levits said in an interview to LTV programme Rīta Panorāma that to ensure unity of the coalition, it is necessary to create a new instrument that is listed in cooperation documents – if a project backed by the coalition falls apart due to the actions of some faction, the PM, for example, will have the right to request the resignation of that faction’s minister.
PM Krišjānis Kariņš said that when forming the coalition, it is vital to agree on action and consequences for failure.
According to him, any government that is not unified will eventually fall apart.
Kariņš said it should be listed in the cooperation memorandum which sanctions coalition partners can expect if they fail to comply with the coalition’s decision. This measure would remind partners that parties that form the coalition have to work together and aim for common goals. This means parties should spend more time defining common goals, said the PM.
AS politician Māris Kučinskis said there could be a similar kind of regulation adopted, considering that PM already has the right to dismiss ministers. At the same time it is no less important to outline ministers’ objectives – as long as they are accurately formulated, it is easy to follow how these objectives are accomplished, said Kučinskis.
NA faction’s vice-chairman Jānis Dombrava believes this topic is very controversial.
It is necessary to outline what will happen if the PM’s party – JV – proposes an initiative that ends up rejected by other cooperation partners, said the NA representative, rhetorically asking if the PM would dismiss one of his party’s ministers in such a situation.
This idea remains unclear, said Dombrava, also mentioning that responsibility of coalition parties is debatable. He also mentioned that a similar mechanism is already in place – if deputies vote against the state budget, the government falls apart.
President Egils Levits said he will nominate the next PM candidate that he will once sufficient progress has been made in the government declaration creation process, as journalists were told by the president after his meeting with JV’s leader.
Levits said Kariņš will remain in charge of the coalition formation process, which still has four steps left, including the signing of the cooperation memorandum.
The next step is about the government’s overall structure, which is to reflect the solution for new problems. In this context JV proposes creating a new ministry – Ministry of Energy, Environment and Climate.
Levits hopes this new ministry will be created.
The third issue is about the persons that make responsible ministers, only once this topic has been properly discussed it will be possible to focus on the government’s declaration, said the president.
He reminded that the existing government declaration has a total of 247 sections. This means a similar amount of work will need to be put into coalition parties’ agreeing on joint objectives.
As previously reported, the new coalition in Latvia will be composed of three parties – JV, AS and NA. Coalition formation negotiations will continue on Wednesday, 2 November.