The National Alliance (NA) have made a strategic choice by not supporting any of the existing presidential candidates. Instead the party hopes to elect one of their own in the second round of elections, said University of Latvia Social Sciences Faculty dean, politologist Jānis Ikstens in an interview to LTV programme Today’s question.
According to him, NA is “betting on the second round”, in which coalition parties will have to pick a joint candidate. Because NA has taken a strategically neutral position, the party has a good shot at proposing a candidate close to them.
At the same time, social anthropologist Mārtiņš Daugulis mentioned in an interview that both Uldis Pīlēns and Edgars Rinkēvičs will go “all in”.
NA leader Raivis Dzintars told Delfi.lv that “it is possible the National Alliance will not support any of the existing presidential candidates”.
When asked if a president could be elected on the 31st of May, Dzintars said: “I think the best solution for the country, the lesser evil, would be if there was no agreement [about a specific presidential candidate], and if the coalition continued looking for a new candidate.”
Dzintars also stressed that New Unity’s “step, is selecting one of the most visible and popular leader of the party, taking such a deep moral burden, doing all they can to achieve a result”.
“New Unity plays with high bets and high risks. If they succeed, New Unity will have the strongest position in Latvia’s politics it has ever had,” said the NA leader.
It should be added that long before parties started selecting their presidential candidates, there was an assumption voiced in the Saeima that the National Alliance could select Minister of Defence Ināra Mūrniece. However, in the middle of April the party decided to support Latvia’s President Egils Levits. Although initially Levits said he would run for re-election, at the beginning of May he changed his mind.
Presidential elections in Latvia will be taking place in the Saeima on the last day of May.
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