Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš will submit an article of resignation of the government on Thursday 17 August during the meeting with President Edgars Rinkēvičs. On Monday 14 August, the Prime Minister informed, at the joint meeting of the Board of the “New Unity” and the Saeima faction, of the intention to submit a letter of resignation of the government to the President, and called on the “New Unity” to nominate a new candidate for the Prime Minister’s post. The political partners forming the government – the “National Alliance” and the “United List”, have also been informed of the Prime Minister’s intention.
“The development of a country requires a strong and dynamic government that can make difficult and complex decisions. Finally, after very lengthy negotiations, it has become clear that the “National Alliance” and the “United List” make all efforts to discourage any attempt by me to introduce the necessary dynamism into work of the government,” emphasises K. Kariņš.
“I would like to take this opportunity and thank all ministers for the work undertaken so far. Let me also express my gratitude to the voters for their confidence in me during the Saeima elections. I am confident that the new candidate for the Prime Minister’s post of the “New Unity” will be able to form a strong and dynamic government that will ensure the successful further development of our country,” said the Prime Minister.
K. Kariņš points out that in the four-and-a-half years since in the office, the state and society of Latvia have coped with a number of challenges: “In 2019, we were faced with a deep financial sector supervisory crisis, which threatened with the country’s inclusion on the grey list and, according to analysts, would have led to a decline in economic growth of around 10 % of GDP. We successfully addressed the challenge by the ‘overhaul’ of the financial sector’s supervision. This was followed by the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, when no one had an idea of how to overcome it, but we, as a society, coped with it, incl. by ensuring that the unemployment did not rise during the pandemic, and protecting around 50000 people from unemployment with downtime benefits. Even today, Latvia has a low unemployment rate compared to European indicators.”
“In general, we have ensured economic growth, despite the fact that the COVID-19 crisis was followed a hybrid threat at the Latvia-Belarus border and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Throughout this period, we have maintained stability in the country and society, by significantly increasing investment and preparedness in security and defence. Let me once again thank all those with whom we have worked together. We have, however, to look to the future, and I see the future in the hands of the new head of government,” emphasises the Prime Minister.
