- Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins has announced his resignation as part of a planned government reshuffle.
- The head of government of the Baltic EU and NATO country announced in Riga that he would submit his resignation to President Edgars Rinkevics on Thursday.
- Karins has governed for five years with an alliance of centre-right parties. Now he wanted to expand the alliance with the Greens and the Left. This project failed.
Karins explained that he had asked his liberal-conservative party, Jauna Vienotiba, to put forward a candidate for the head of government. He himself does not want to lead the next government. His party will select a new candidate for the post of head of government on Wednesday. President Rinkevics would have to commission him to form a government and, if successful, parliament would have to confirm it, Karins said.
The Latvian head of government, who has been in office since 2019, has led a tripartite alliance of his Jauna Vienotiba with the national-conservative National Alliance and the centrist-conservative electoral alliance United List in the Baltic Sea state bordering Russia.
cracks in the coalition
Because of discrepancies within the coalition, the 58-year-old announced on Friday that he wanted to form a new government involving two opposition parties – without resigning for the time being. This caused a stir and discussions, as according to the constitution, the President nominates the head of government.
Karins has been pushing for some time to expand the previous coalition to include the peasant-green alliance and the left-wing progressives. According to his own statements, he wanted to make government work smoother and more effective. But his coalition partners rejected this.
New government
“We must find a way to put petty disagreements aside and create a broader, stronger and more dynamic government,” Karins said at a press conference on Monday. He himself does not hold on to his office.
In Latvia, according to the constitution, the resignation of the head of government automatically leads to the resignation of the entire Council of Ministers. Until a new government is confirmed, the old one will remain in office.