With New Unity (JV) initiating negotiations on changes in the ruling coalition, the Latvian government appears to be in agony, said National Alliance (NA) politician, Latvian MEP Roberts Zīle in an interview to Latvijas Avīze.
After presidential elections JV commenced negotiations with coalition partners and opposition parties about various political solutions.
JV has stressed multiple times that the objective of these negotiations is ensuring progress in topics in which the government has not been able to secure solutions.
Coalition partners from the Combined List (AS) and National Alliance (NA), however, believe the real objective is bringing change to the coalition, which is something neither party approves of. This is why they refuse to attend negotiations.
According to Zīle, currently it seems JV, which received the most votes in Saeima elections, is trying to expand its influence.
“This means the government agonises, I would say. Kariņš and JV are waiting for NA and AS to make mistakes.
Then they will point at bad politicians that upset the government, which would bring an opportunity to create the promised expanded government. It is likely there will be a different PM, however,” said the politician.
By expanding the coalition, JV wants to settle the score with certain coalition partners’ stray opinions and continue working on the party’s programme, said Zīle.
He, like others, said it is not possible to simply expand the coalition. “Expanding the coalition […] also means a new government. You can’t expand the existing government, the programme of which was voted against by two potential newcomers.”
According to the politician, changes should come to the coalition, because “ZZS are not some green newcomer to politics and they will want debts paid”, but JV will have a hard time saying – no, let’s stay with the old coalition.
Zīle believes JV does not want to collapse its own government because “it will not be very popular”. This is why there are delays. The government’s collapse is possible after the NATO summit, which is set to happen in July. “I think JV needs to pull itself together. (…) If they promised so much to their new partners when it comes to government formation, the PM needs to agree on the dissolution of the old government,” added the MEP.
“I respect Kariņš success in the past four years. The desire to work in European politics is nothing to condemn people over, but you have to announce it clearly,” said Zīle, adding that he doesn’t know if Valdis Dombrovskis could be nominated for work in the European Commission for another term or if there is some internal agreement to give this post to Kariņš.
When asked if NA is prepared to work in opposition, Zīle said his party will not end up in opposition, but if it does, it will not be for long.
“Although, if you listen to Viktors Valainis from ZZS and the Progressive party, they want a narrow coalition, but this is not important for JV.
They want it wider. The question is what they might do with AS during the government formation process – I don’t think AS could break into pieces. NA cannot fall apart, definitely,” said Zīle.
He also said NA will not work in the same coalition with Progressive party because “they clearly attack us”.
Also read: ZZS faction leader ways party negotiations should focus on PM’s outlined topics