(Riga) Latvians began voting on Saturday to renew their parliament, in the shadow of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and were preparing, according to analysts, to keep the centrist Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins at the head of the government.
Posted at 12:35 a.m.
This result seems likely due to the weakening of the populists, the conservatives and the social-democratic Harmony party (close to the Russian-speaking minority), while Mr. Karins’ pro-Western party, New Unity, is leading the polls. with approximately 13% of voting intentions.
Two days before the election, President Egils Levits had called on the citizens of this Baltic country, a member of the EU and NATO, to go to the polls, while warning them against pro-Kremlin parties close to the large Russian-speaking minority who “were reluctant to state clearly who is the aggressor and who is the victim at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.
Without naming them, he also criticized in his statement populist parties that “offer simple and mostly impractical solutions to extraordinarily complex problems, those that promise to cut all costs and increase all allocations overnight”. , after citing in particular the cost of energy.
Polling stations that opened at 7 a.m. local time (4 a.m. GMT) must close at 8 p.m. (5 p.m. GMT). The first exit polls should be published a few minutes later.