Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa resigned this Thursday after her coalition government was fractured in recent weeks following a collateral incident of the war in Ukraine.
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Two Ukrainian drones were diverted due to Russian electronic warfare measures, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, and entered Latvian airspace, where they caused an explosion upon hitting an empty oil depot in Rezekne, 60 kilometers from the Russian border.
Following the events, the Prime Minister held the then Defense Minister, social democrat Andris Sprūds, responsible for the failure to intercept the drones and forced his resignation, which led to condemnation from one of the allied parties in the tripartite government (the Progressive Social Democrats), who accused the Latvian leader of discrediting the Armed Forces.
Pillar in aid to Ukraine
Under Siliņa’s government, Latvia became the fourth country to allocate the highest proportion of its GDP in aid to Kyiv
Upon the appointment of a new Defense Minister, the social democrats withdrew their support for the Prime Minister and triggered a political crisis in which they demanded her resignation and left the coalition, opening the door to a new government. The threat from opposition parties, who rushed to state they would support a motion of no confidence against her, forced Siliņa to decide to step aside after three years in power.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs has scheduled meetings for Friday with all political parties in Parliament to prepare the appointment of a new prime minister candidate for an interim government until the next elections.
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Evika Siliņa, leader of the center-right New Unity party, has been a staunch advocate of support for Ukraine against Russia. The outgoing prime minister was just months away from seeking to renew her mandate in the general elections Latvia will hold next October.
The centrist-liberal, the second woman to lead a Latvian government, came to head the Executive in 2023, after the formation of an unusual tripartite coalition between centrists, the Union of Greens and Farmers, and the social democrats, who have left the coalition and precipitated the government crisis.
Under Šiliņa’s leadership, according to data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), a German research center that tracks aid announcements to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, Latvia reached 600 million euros in military aid to Ukraine.
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