Levits believes it right not to appoint people who ran for parliament, but were not elected, as ministers in new government

  • 2022-10-03
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - President Egils Levits believes it right not to appoint people who ran for parliament, but were not elected, as ministers in the new government.

On Sunday, October 2, New Unity's board decided not to nominate MPs not voted into the 14th Saeima for ministerial posts. Today, Levits told Latvian Radio that this was the right thing to do because these people had been assessed and not supported by voters. If the voters have not recognized them as good enough, then it is not politically correct to appoint them ministers by the back door.

The president has a similar opinion about ministerial candidates who did not participate in the elections at all, although exceptions are possible here. He also believes that the outgoing government of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins faced extremely difficult challenges and, considering the makeup of the 13th Saeima, has been working quite well.

As reported, New Unity achieved the best result in last Saturday's parliamentary elections by winning 26 mandates in the 14th Saeima. The Union of Greens and Farmers follows with 16, United List with 15, National Alliance with 13, For Stability with 11, Progressives with 10 and Latvia First with nine mandates.

Development/For, the Conservatives and Harmony all took less than 5 percent of the vote and were not elected to the 14th Saeima.

Voter turnout in the 14th Saeima elections was 59.4 percent.