The announcement from Prime Minister Evika Siliņa’s announcement about the coalition reaching an agreement on the need to propose a shared candidate for the position of Governor of the Bank of Latvia, which resulted in Mārtiņš Kazāks and Reinis Bērziņš being cast aside, demonstrates the inability of the coalition to reach an agreement and its unwillingness to undermine the coalition, BNN was told by politologist Filips Rajevskis.
“New Unity did this because they couldn’t agree with the Union of Greens and Farmers. The latter withdrew their candidate because they don’t want to undermine the coalition by forcing their candidate on New Unity with votes from the opposition,” Filips Rajevskis comments on what happened.
The politologist said information reported on the public space suggests both candidates were taken off the race because the Constitution Protection Bureau had unofficially informed politicians about Reinis Bērziņš’s inability to gain access to official secrets is “on the level of rumours”.
“What happens next is the search for new candidates. Mārtiņš Kazāks (on the 18th of December) said he is prepared to run candidate. Reinis Bērziņš skipped his invitation to “Kas notiek Latvijā” programme on the 18th of December thereby demonstrated one attempt was enough for him. I think prior to this unpleasant process everyone who thought they would want to run as candidates will now reconsider. Because anyone can end up like Reinis Bērziņš,” explains Filips Rajevskis.
Because opposition party “For Stability!” candidate Pāvels Kuzmins did not support from the parliament and no Governor of the Bank of Latvia was elected in the end, it was decided to appoint Māris Kālis as Acting Governor of the Bank of Latvia. He will remain in charge of Latvia’s central bank until the Saeima approves a new head for this institution.