Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has backed opposition MP Andris Kulbergs to replace Evika Silina as prime minister after she resigned over an incident involving a Ukrainian drone.
Kulbergs, leader of the United List alliance of smaller parties, which is the largest opposition bloc in parliament, would take office if approved by lawmakers along with his cabinet.
“Given recent developments, I believe the new prime minister should come from the opposition parties,” President Rinkevics told a press conference on Saturday.
Late last week, former Prime Minister Silina dismissed Defense Minister Andris Spruds after two Ukrainian drones strayed from Russia into Latvia and exploded at an oil storage facility. The incident was one of a series of similar events in NATO member states Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
The drone incidents “have clearly shown that the political leadership in the defense sector has failed to fulfill its promise of a safe sky over our country,” Silina said when explaining Spruds’ dismissal.
In the following days, The Progressives, Silina’s left-wing coalition ally, withdrew its support for the government, causing her to lose her majority. “I am resigning, but I am not giving up,” Silina said in a televised statement on Thursday.
Silina had been prime minister since 2023.
President Rinkevics chose Kulbergs after meeting with representatives from all parties in parliament, according to Reuters. The president told reporters he had invited Kulbergs to form a government. If successful, the cabinet would still need parliamentary approval.
Kulbergs said he hoped to create a “broad coalition” to run Latvia until parliamentary elections on October 3. “The president gave me 10 days,” he told reporters on Saturday.
Earlier, on May 7, two Ukrainian drones flew in from Russia; one crashed into a fuel depot in eastern Latvia, causing a fire that was quickly contained. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after a phone call with Rinkevics at a summit in Romania on Wednesday that he would send Ukrainian experts to Latvia to help strengthen its air defense.
