The new coalition in Riga City Council may receive support from 33 city council deputies, LETA reports.
Previously it was reported that after failing to achieve progress with Par/Progressive (PP), the three-party bloc – New Unity (JV), National Alliance/Latvian Association of Regions (NA/LRA) and Kods Rīgai (KR) – decided to commence negotiations with other parties represented in Riga.
The coalition plans to invite Honour to Serve Riga (GKR) and For Latvia’s Development (LA) as potential partners.
Par party’s representative Laima Geikina says she is generally in favour of continuing in the existing coalition instead of staying in the opposition. “Unfortunately, Progressive colleagues showed no interest in our compromise variants,” said Geikina.
The party’s board has yet to decide on future activities, but her personal opinion is that parties should continue working together, adding that the party’s board has plans to discuss future actions in the coming days.
Considering the existing bloc has 20 votes, GKR has five, LA has three and Par has two, the new potential coalition could have half of 60 city council deputies’ votes.
The once JV faction member Kaspars Spunda supports the creation of a new coalition. He admits that he left the faction and coalition because he objected to then the Mayor of Riga Mārtiņš Staķis’ management methods.
According to Spunde, Staķis had almost a prophetic personality. According to him, it would be ideal if an agreement was reached with Progressive Party, but it seems at the moment that this faction does not want to work.
Ex-Harmony member turned independent Riga City Council deputy Guntars Jirgensons is openly supporting of the new coalition. He told LETA that at the moment there is no talk about any specific mayoral candidates and sectors of interest. Nevertheless, he is determined to support the new coalition.
Jirgensons, too, believes adding Progressive party to the coalition would be best.
Together with these independent deputies the coalition would have 32 votes.
Another potential coalition partner could be Conservative Party’s representative Valters Bergs. He told LETA that he was approached but no specific offers were provided to him.
Bergs explained that before voicing direct support to the new coalition, he wants to be clear about their priorities and tasks. He says he wants to understand how the new coalition could benefit Riga’s residents before voicing any support.
For example, the previous coalition promised an uncompromising fight against corruption when they came to power, but in reality they liquidated the Internal Investigations and Corruption Prevention Office.
It is possible there are ongoing talks with other members of the city council. This means potential support for the new coalition could be even larger.
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