LATVIA-PM Kariņš To Step Down As Efforts To Maintain Coalition Fail

Wires reporting that Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš will step down after efforts to maintain the governing governing coalition failed. Late last week, Kariņš - who has served as PM since 2019 - stated that he would seek to form a new governing coalition with the opposition after his erstwhile allies refused to back several reform measures in the healthcare and education sectors. Baltic State-focused outlet Delfi reports that Minister of Welfare Evika Silina, from the same centre-right New Unity (JV) party as Kariņš could emerge as the next PM.

• Latvian business news outlet Dienas Bizness reports that "With the resignation of Kariņi, the entire Cabinet of Ministers will have fallen, thus opening the way for the formation of a new government with the "New Unity" (JV), the Green and Peasant Union (ZZS) and the "Progressives" as its potential core." If this gov't is formed it would mark a shift towards the political centre ground, with the agrarian ZZS and centre-left Progressives replacing the green conservative United List and right-wing populist National Alliance in the coalition.
• Kariņš, alongside the leaders of neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania, has proved one of the most vocal EU leaders advocating for a hard-line stance against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, warning of the lasting threat posed to Russia's other neighbours, particularly those former Soviet states such as the Baltics.