Zatlers resigns from Reform Party leadership

RIGA - Reform Party leader Valdis Zatlers has resigned indefinitely from the party's leadership due to health issues.

Yesterday evening, the party's board elected three deputy board chairpersons - Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, Janis Vilnitis and Sandra Sondore-Kukule, who will be assigned to specific areas and will lead the party.

Zatlers promises to return to Latvia's political arena in a couple of months, but will now focus on his health. "Doctors have diagnosed me and I will undergo surgery and intensive treatment in the nearest future," explains the politician.

In his statement to the mass media, Zatlers lauds himself for proposing dissolving the 10th Saeima and "bringing the country back on the right track." He believes that "progress has been achieved in several areas over the past year."