Riga, May 16 (IANS) Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has announced that he has entrusted Andris Kulbergs, a member of parliament from the opposition United List party, with the formation of a new government.

At a press conference on Saturday, Rinkevics said that he had held intensive consultations in recent days with representatives of the political parties and factions in the Saeima, following the resignation announcement by outgoing Prime Minister Evika Silina from New Unity.

Taking into account the results of the consultations, Rinkevics said he saw an opportunity to form a government by entrusting it to representatives of the opposition. He explained that this was linked both to recent political dynamics and the need to give the opposition a chance to propose a new approach, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rinkevics also said that he expects a report on significant progress from the prime minister-designate by May 25, including the specific outline of the coalition, the division of responsibilities among the parties, and a draft of the government’s declaration.

Silina announced her resignation on Thursday after the country’s three-party coalition government of the New Unity, the Progressives, and the Union of Greens and Farmers, collapsed, just months before the parliamentary elections in early October.

Silina said, “At this moment, political jealousy and narrow party interests have taken precedence over responsibility. Seeing a strong candidate for the post of defence minister [Colonel Raivis Melnis, whom Silina nominated to replace the resigned Progressives’ minister Andris Spruds], political windbags have chosen a crisis – a government crisis. That is why I am announcing my resignation. This is not an easy decision, but it is the right decision in this situation.”

On May 10, Silina said she asked Spruds to resign as it “demonstrated that the political leadership of the defence sector has failed to fulfil its promise of safe skies over our country.”

Last week, Latvian Defence Minister Andris Spruds stepped down after Ukrainian drones entered the country’s airspace from Russia and hit an oil storage facility, Politico reported.

–IANS

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