If opposition chief Kulbergs had been to succeed, the cupboard would nonetheless must be permitted by the parliament.
Revealed On 16 Might 2026
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has backed opposition lawmaker Andris Kulbergs to exchange Evika Silina for the highest job after the prime minister resigned over an incident involving Ukrainian drones.
Kulbergs, chief of the United Record of smaller events, which types the biggest opposition bloc in parliament, will take workplace if lawmakers approve him and his cupboard.
“Contemplating current occasions, I feel the brand new prime minister ought to come from opposition events,” President Rinkevics informed a information convention on Saturday.
Final weekend, the previous Prime Minister Silina fired her defence minister, Andris Spruds, after two Ukrainian drones strayed into Latvia from Russia and exploded at an oil storage facility.
The incident is simply the newest in a sequence of such occasions in NATO members Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.
The drone incidents “clearly demonstrated that the political management of the defence sector has did not fulfil its promise of protected skies over our nation”, Silina mentioned when explaining Spruds’s pressured resignation.
Within the following days, The Progressives occasion, Silina’s left-leaning coalition companion, pulled assist from the federal government and left her and not using a majority. “I am resigning, however I’m not giving up,” Silina mentioned in a televised assertion on Thursday, saying her resignation.
Silina had been the prime minister since 2023.
President Rinkevics settled on Kulbergs after assembly representatives from all of the events in parliament, reported the Reuters information company.
The president informed reporters he had invited Kulbergs to type a authorities. If Kulbergs had been to succeed, the cupboard lineup would nonetheless must be permitted by the parliament.
Kulbergs mentioned he hoped to create an “enlarged coalition” to manage Latvia till parliamentary elections are held on October 3.
“The president has given me 10 days,” he informed reporters on Saturday.
Earlier, on Might 7, two Ukrainian drones flew over from Russia, with one in all them crashing into a petroleum depot within the east of Latvia, inflicting a fireplace that was rapidly contained.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned after talking with Rinkevics at a summit in Romania on Wednesday that he would ship Ukrainian specialists to Latvia to assist it increase its air defences.
