The centre-right New Unity party of Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins won Saturday’s election, according to provisional results, with its 19% of the vote putting him in a position to head another coalition government.
The results – with 91% of districts counted – mean Latvia should remain a leading voice alongside its Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Estonia in pushing the European Union for a decisive stance against Russia.
U.S. born Karins’ party was again the party with the most support following the election. Members of the current coalition were on track to receive 42 seats in the 100-seat parliament, so Karins needs to draft additional allies to stay as a prime minister.
As many as nine parties won sufficient votes to gain seats in parliament.
After a campaign dominated by security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Karins told Reuters he will be working to craft a coalition of like-minded parties.
Latvia’s social democratic “Harmony” party, which represents the country’s Russian minority, and which has previously had links with Vladimir Putin’s “New Russia” party, has lost all its seats in Parliament.
Main image: By European Parliament from EU – Latvian Prime Minister Kariņš: boost the EU’s essentials, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…
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