Race is on to be new PM

RIGA -- WITH incumbent Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis's self-declared Dec. 5 resignation deadline fast approaching, the race to replace him is starting to hot up in Latvia.

Kalvitis' own People's Party is considering up to six replacements, Kalvitis revealed after a Nov. 14 meeting with President Valdis Zatlers.

He emphasized that the process of forming of a new government has just begun. Only after the next government's goals are defined would candidates be selected, he said.

Kalvitis acknowledged that the leading candidates included the same names that the press has been speculating about over the past week, including Culture Minister Helena Demakova, Regional Development and Local Governments Minister Edgars Zalans and Riga City Council member Edmunds Krastins.

Finance Minister Oskars Spurdzins and former minister Gundars Berzins could also be nominated for the premiership, Kalvitis said.

The People's Party remains the largest political party represented in Saeima, and therefore it will play an important role in the new government, Kalvitis said.

Zatlers did not meet with reporters after the meeting with Kalvitis, but his press secretary Inta Lase stressed that the president was monitoring the situation closely.

Lase told the press that Zatlers will meet with all parties represented in parliament, plus parliamentary speaker Gundars Daudze.

Lase also revealed that Zatlers still holds to his opinion that there should be a public debate about candidates for the prime minister's post.

Kalvitis announced on Nov. 7 that his coalition government would resign on Dec. 5 in order to form a new coalition government.

The opposition New Era party has already named its candidate,  European Parliament lawmaker Valdis Dombrovskis.

New Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins had also been linked with the top job in government, but appeared to count himself out of contention during an interview with the Dienas Bizness newspaper.

"If I would be offered to become a prime minister today, I would say that this is not a good choice," he said, adding that everything is possible in politics, but economic decisions are not among the ones he has been in touch in his previous career.

"Latvia needs an economist type of prime minister at present," Riekstins said, adding that he expects to continue in his current post after the formation of a new government.

"I assume that if the People's Party is responsible for this area, the party will not choose another candidate," the minister said.