Failure to elect Bank of Latvia governor a sign of New Unity's inability to lead coalition in a sensible way - political analyst

RIGA - The failure to elect a new Bank of Latvia governor is a sign of New Unity's inability to lead the governing coalition in a sensible way, political analyst Juris Rozenvalds told LETA.

Rozenvalds considers this a shameful failure of the largest group in the Saeima - New Unity - and Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity). He added that the failure to elect the Bank of Latvia governor has shown that the party, which largely sets the tone in the government, was not able to organize the process, to advance it.

'We are currently in a situation where some sort of contingency measures are being taken but the result is already negative. "Latvia will now remain without voting rights on the European Central Bank's Governing Council for a month or two," the political scientist said.

According to Rozenvalds, this situation shows that not the fragility of the coalition but the weakness of its leading party. "This definitely harms New Unity's prestige and strengthens the opposition," Rozenvalds said.

"It doesn't look good that the main candidates learn about their withdrawal less than a day before the vote, I think it's a pretty sad situation," Rozenvalds said.

The Saeima on Thursday voted on the next Bank of Latvia governor, but two coalition parties, New Unity and the Union of Greens and Farmers, withdrew their candidates - Kazaks and Reinis Berzins, chairman of the board of the Development Finance Institution Altum (Altum) - to agree on a single candidate next year.