Faced with an unruly coalition partner in the People's Party, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis' New Era Party is uniting with two other conservative parties. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.
RIGA — Several Latvian political parties will be revamped and rebooted before the next parliamentary elections as the current ruling coalition partners diverge.
Three right-wing parties in Latvia’s parliament — Civic Union, New Era and the newly-formed Society for Different Politics — have agreed to come together under the name Unity for next year’s election. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis is a member of the New Era Party.
At the same time, former Prime Minister Andris Šķēle has actively continued preparing his way to return to the political scene of Latvia. He visited the People’s Party’s fraction in the Saeima Wednesday, the first time since 2003. The People’s Party, which controls the most seats in parliament, is widely speculated to be considering breaking the ruling coalition after the budget is passed.
3 is the magic number
The new Unity political union was conceptually formed in August. It is supported by former editor-in-chief of newspaper Diena, Sarmīte Ēlerte. Society for Different Politics co-chairman Aigars Štokenbergs told the press that the new political union would counter the “Šlesers-Ušakovs bloc,” and it is not excluding that other right-leaning parties might join Unity later.
The name Unity is still unofficial. New Era chairwoman Solvita Āboltiņa told to the press that the name cannot be confirmed at the moment due to legal formalities that still must be addressed.
Go it alone, don’t be roadkill
The People’s Party is also preparing for a tough election campaign next year, but instead of joining forces with other parties, it’s gone back to its roots. Party founder Šķēle has repeatedly made it clear that he is returning to politics again. He is the frontrunner to be elected People’s Party leader at the party congress which will take place in two weeks. For the elections Šķēle is considered a likely prime minister candidate.
Šķēle’s latest speeches have highlighted Latvia’s need for a strong leader who will lead country out of the crisis. But more details will not be revealed now, Šķēle explained to the press after Wednesday’s meeting in the Saeima. At the same time he explained that he does not think that currency devaluation could help Latvia anymore.
“When this budget is adopted, the devaluations will already be executed. Though it will be in administrative form, by cutting wages for teachers, policemen, doctors and clerks. It will be done not by market mechanisms but by administrative decisions,” Šķēle said.
Šķēle also stressed the importance of pride while overcoming the economic crisis.
“The national leader should not look like a hedgehog ran over by a car,” he told the press. Šķēle would not elaborate if he was referring to Latvia’s President Valdis Zatlers or Dombrovskis.
