If Riga City Council faction of Par/Progressive (PP) wants to reduce the number of vice-mayors in the city council, they may agree to drop the idea of proposing their own candidate for the mayoral post.
LTV programme Rīta panorāma was told as much by one of three existing vice-mayors in Riga, National Alliance/Latvian Association of Regions (NA/LRA) representative Edvards Ratnieks on Tuesday, the 25th of July.
NA/LRA, New Unity (JV) and Kods Rīgai (KR) have composed a three-party bloc that will select a candidate for the post of the city council’s chairman now that the previous mayor – Mārtiņš Staķis – is out.
Ratnieks claims
the parties have yet to discuss any specific names,
and this topic will be addressed once politicians have agreed on important tasks.
However, he admits that it is very possible that the next candidate may come from the political party that has the most votes in the bloc. This would mean JV may nominate the next chairman of Riga City Council.
Acting Riga City Council chairman Vilnis Ķirsis repeated the position that the three-party bloc is prepared the propose a mayoral candidate, but there aren’t any specific candidates agreed upon as of yet. “The moment will come when we announce it, and, if necessary, it could happen this week,” said the politician.
When asked if he is prepared to run for the mayor’s post, Ķirsis said he was JV’s mayoral candidate, and he is prepared to work in this post. However, he still said it would be unwise to jump ahead, because parties have to reach an agreement on this topic first.
Ķirsis believes parties represented in Riga City Council are prepared to agree on future cooperation, but it is also possible the situation could result in snap elections if parties fail to agree on a new chairman of the city council.
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