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Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins is to resign along with his cabinet blaming a breakdown in relations with other members of the multi-party government. Announcing his resignation, Karins said he was stepping down over a "lack of dynamics" and a "need for new government coalition."
He told a press conference: "This Thursday I will submit the resignation of myself and this cabinet to the president."
Alongside its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia is a leading voice in pushing the European Union and NATO to increase pressure on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Karins' center-right New Unity party won a national election in October 2022, gaining 26 of 100 seats in a fractured parliament where seven parties are represented.
He blamed coalition partners "blocking the work for prosperity and economic growth" for Monday's decision, according to a posting on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Karins' party governed the EU nation of 1.9 million, with support from the conservative National Alliance and the United List of smaller parties giving him a narrow parliamentary majority. But relations with the coalition soured after it failed to field a joint candidate a presidential election in May.
On Friday, Karins made an abortive attempt to bring more parties into government. They included the left-leaning Progressives party and the Greens and the Farmers Union, a coalition of conservative groups fronted by Aivars Lembergs, the mayor of port town Ventspils who was put on a U.S. sanctions list for alleged corruption in 2019.
Karins' New Unity party plans to select its candidate for prime minister on Wednesday, he said.
President Edgars Rinkevics has responsibility for giving a mandate to a new prime minister to try to form a government. That candidate would also face a parliamentary vote of confidence.
Latvia's next parliamentary election is scheduled for 2026.
(AFP)
