Latvia’s President Egils Levits on Tuesday gave the country’s elected Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins the mandate to form a government almost seven weeks after the country’s elections.
Levits has chosen Karins, 57, as the candidate to form the government after a meeting held shortly before, the Presidency itself confirmed on its website. Karins ran in the October 1 elections as the candidate of the ruling liberal-conservative Jauna Vienotiba party, which won the elections by a significant margin.
The President had previously authorized Karins to maintain contacts with the main political formations to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition with the party’s main allies.
The Jauna Vienotiba, for its part, has agreed to form an alliance with the centrist United List party and the far-right National Alliance. The coalition would have 54 of the 100 seats in the Latvian Parliament.
«There is clear confidence that this coalition is sufficiently stable and shares common positions,» Levits said, although Karins described the country’s «economic transformation» as the main task of the new government.
