Dombrovskis to head next government

  • 2011-10-20
  • TBT Staff

Berzins (second from left) met with party leaders before nominating Dombrovskis for the next prime minister (photo: president.lv)

RIGA - The Latvian president has asked incumbent Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis to head the next government, making Dombrovkis the only person in Latvian history to head three consecutive governments.

President Andris Berzins nominated Dombrovskis for the job on Oct. 19 after meeting with the five parties that were elected into parliament in September's snap elections.

Dombrovskis' "Unity" party came in third in the elections, trailing both the Russian-rights Harmony Center Party as well as the newly formed Zatlers' Reform Party.

“I have taken the decision to invite Valdis Dombrovskis to form a Cabinet of ministers,” said Berzins in a statement on his website.

“The first serious test of the would-be coalition’s ability to take action will be the vote on the state budget for 2012,” the president said, “which cannot become an experiment with the state and threaten the state’s international agreements.”

Dombrovskis will likely form a government consisting of Unity and ZRP, along with the right-wing VL-TB/LNNK and a group of 6 independent MPs that left ZRP last week

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