Latvian foreign minister quits amid flight spending scandal

Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš announced his resignation on Thursday, engulfed by a scandal on taking private jets to official meetings.

His departure effectively eliminates him as a challenger to EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis — a party colleague from Latvia — who is angling to return to the Commission after voters elect a new European Parliament in June. Kariņš had in recent months expressed interest in top jobs at both NATO and the EU.

Kariņš, who was prime minister until last November, has been embarrassed by his use of state and EU funds to pay for charter flights during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Latvia’s corruption bureau KNAB last week opened an investigation into his personal frequent flyer program.

Even though it would rather be the State Chancellery that’s liable for any potential abuse — and not Kariņš himself — he’s now on the way out.

As prime minister, he allegedly spent €600,000 on charter flights from the state budget. On top of that, the EU wired another €557,000 to Riga for his trips, Latvian media reported back in November — the most of any EU country.

Without referring to the flight scandal, Kariņš shared his decision on Thursday with reporters after meeting with his successor Evika Siliņa, national broadcaster LSM reported. He will step down on April 10, when parliament will name his successor.

When the news first broke in November, Kariņš said he wouldn’t quit, instead raising his sights and expressing interest in becoming NATO’s next secretary-general. He also threw his hat in the ring to succeed Dombrovskis, the Commission’s executive vice-president with a broad remit covering trade and other economic issues.

Squeaky-clean technocrat Dombrovskis is leading the slate of the Unity party — which is a member of the conservative European People’s — for the European election, with Kariņš as his number two. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Kariņš will remain a candidate.