Latvian President Egils Levits believes that the current coalition’s remaining in place would be the best option and said in the morning news program that the number of votes that get the President elected is not what’s most important.
According to Levits, the main question is about which votes got President elected. This time the votes from the opposition were crucial. President said: “Let’s see what the consultations will bring.” A more extensive coalition is one of the possibilities but, at the same time, Levits pointed out that he would like to avoid the coalition, in which “would be the political power that hasn’t fully made itself free from the impact of the oligarchs”.
The schism in the coalition widened at the time of the presidential election.
On Wednesday, the 31st of May, the Saeima elected New Unity (JV) candidate Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs as the next President of Latvia. However, the victory was secured with the votes from the opposition: the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) voted for him since round one of the elections, and Progressive Party also supported Rinkēvičs when their candidate dropped out of the race. President-elect didn’t get any support from the National Alliance and Combined List.
The result of elections has created a general belief on the sidelines of politics that changes should happen in the government – either the composition of the existing coalition will expand, or the government will change completely. For example, it is assumed that JV, ZZS, and Progressives could form the core of the future coalition. Kariņš and JV have already started negotiations with AS and NA on the expansion of the coalition. Combined List and NA have so far expressed a negative attitude towards changes in the government.