RIGA — Vaira Paegle, head of the European affairs committee in Latvia’s parliament, has announced that she intends to leave the People’s Party due to the imminent return of Andris Šķēle.

Paegle has long been a critic of Šķēle, and she did not waste any time making her antipathy known after the three-time former prime minister announced earlier this week his intention to become chairman of the party. Šķēle also expressed a willingness to head the government for the fourth time.

Paegle told reporters Wednesday that Šķēle promised to give up his business interests upon returning politics. “He’s never been able to do that, and he never will,” she was quoted by the Delfi news portal as saying.

Third-term parliamentarian Vaira Paegle has long been a critic of former Prime Minister Andris Šķēle.

Not the first

If Paegle goes through with her decision, she will be the second lawmaker to leave the People’s Party so far this fall. In December the party kicked out long-standing member Dzintars Ābiķis for poor discipline: Abikis voted for a new property tax that the party had decided not to support.

Upon Paegle’s departure People’s Party would still the largest faction in the Saeima with 19 members. Paegle is in her third term in the Saeima. In 1999 she gave up her U.S. citizen in the hope of becoming president. However, her candidacy failed to win a majority of votes in parliament, and Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga eventually went on to win the election. Paegle will become the fifth non-aligned member of Parliament if she goes ahead with the decision to leave the party. Two other non-aligned lawmakers, Artis Pabriks and Aigars Štokenbergs, also left the People’s Party.