Latvian coalition returns to power

The Latvian parliament yesterday (5 November) endorsed a new coalition government, giving Laimdota Straujuma, who has been the country’s stopgap prime minister since January, a chance to maintain her leadership for the next four years and through the country’s presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers next year.

The government includes the same four parties represented in a caretaker government created in January – though two, Unity and the Reform Party, are now in an electoral pact – and most ministers have retained their positions. Edgars Rinkēvičs remains foreign minister.

The most significant of the six ministerial changes are in the finance ministry – where Jānis Reirs, former head of the parliamentary budget committee replaces Andris Vilks – and in the economics ministry, where Dana Reizniece-Ozola succeeds Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis.

The Unity-Reform Party alliance has six posts, while the Union of Greens and Farmers, a member of the European Green group, has five portfolios and the nationalist National Alliance three.

The election, which was held on 4 October, was won by the Harmony Centre, a party based in Latvia’s large ethnic-Russian community. Latvia assumes the presidency of the Council of Ministers in January.