It would be best if the ruling coalition reached an agreement on a single presidential candidate, said Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš after a meeting of coalition parties.
The Combined List (AS) ha picked its founder Uldis Pīlēns as the party’s presidential candidate. New Unity and National Alliance, on the other hand, are not too eager to support this candidate. The National Alliance picked Egils Levits in the previous election. Though the National Alliance has announced plans to pick him as their presidential candidate again, it is unclear if Levits could decide to run for presidency again.
At the moment Pīlēns’ election as Latvia’s next president seems more likely than Levits’ re-election.
According to the PM, an agreement over the presidential candidate would make the work of all involved sides all the easier. It would also bring about “a degree of predictability”.
He stressed that there are nearly four weeks until the 13th of May, when candidate submission for presidential election is expected to end. This means there is still time for the coalition to agree on a candidate.
Combined List party’s Saeima faction chairman Edgars Tavars stressed that his party’s candidate is Pīlēns, and the party expects a clear position from its coalition partners so that it is possible to ensure quality debates in the coalition and the opposition.
Deputy chairman of National Alliance’s Saeima faction Jurģis Klotiņš said that with Pīlēns’ announcement to run in elections, the pre-election period has started. According to the politician, this is a good and democratic process, because there is a degree of transparency.
After a meeting of the National Alliance, during which the party picked Levits for re-election, the party’s leader Raivis Dzintars said about the Combined List’s decision to pick Pīlēns that in this situation,
when the two parties each have their own candidate, the coalition will likely experience “heated debates”.
Presidential elections will take place in the Saeima on the last day of May.
Also read: National Alliance picks Egils Levits for repeated state president’s term