It is still difficult to say if Latvia could see a new president elected in May, said Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) faction leader Viktors Valainis in an interview to Latvijas Radio.
He repeated what was previously said, that ZZS will decide which candidate to vote for in the morning of the Election Day. Until then, politically speaking, there is a very long period of time to consider all aspects.
When asked which criteria ZZS will use to decide which candidate to support, the politician said, confidence that the president will be able to complete his or her promises is very important,
as is public support before and after elections.
“We can see the current president has very low ratings in society. We understand, however, that the president’s mission requires support from residents so that president can perform his or her duties accordingly. If after all campaigns we see that they were nothing more than fishing for votes, such presidents are unlikely to receive support [from ZZS], because such presidents will lose public support immediately after elections, which is absolutely not in Latvia’s interests,” explained Valainis.
The deputy denied that the presidential elections could be associated with possible changes in the government. He also stressed that entering the government is not his party’s goal here.
At the same time, he criticised the current Cabinet of Ministers, calling it incapable of making decisions and claiming that ZZS does not want to get involved with this government.
When asked which government ZZS would like to get involved with, the politician said “it is not a question for today”. According to him, a capable government is “a wide government with core of some kind that is able to reach an agreement on necessary changes and decisions”.
He mentioned that the current government’s biggest mistakes was “putting barriers and walls around the government’s walls”, thereby letting politicians act irresponsibly with important issues and making excuses that there is no other way to form a government without all that.
But now the coalition is in panic, because there are various “theoretical possibilities that, perhaps, things could be done differently”.
Presidential elections in Latvia will be held in the Saeima on the last day of May.
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