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Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s pro-Western centrist party has won elections in Latvia while parties supported by the Baltic state’s large Russian-speaking minority have suffered major setbacks, official results showed on Sunday.
With almost all ballots from Saturday’s vote counted, Karins’s New Unity party was in first place with 18.94 percent while the Harmony party, traditionally backed by Russian speakers, may not have won enough votes to enter parliament.
Harmony came first in the last election in 2018.
The results showed other centrist parties coming second and third and just one party associated with Russian-speakers, Stability!, scraping past the threshold to enter parliament with 6.75 percent.
The Russian-speaking minority in Latvia makes up around 30 percent of the population.
‘Rally around the flag’
Latvians voted in the shadow of neighbouring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with many concerned about Russian aggression and expansionism.
National security and support for Ukraine were key issues for many voters, as well as the need for stability in this country of 1.8 million people on the eastern edge of the European Union and NATO.
“Neither I nor my government nor my country reacts on fear,” Karins told AFP on Saturday after polls closed.
“We will continue to invest in our own defence as a NATO member state,” he added.
Karins said he expected the consultations on forming a new government to begin on Monday.
Political expert Marcis Krastins said before the vote that Karins was “most likely” to be named prime minister, depending on how many smaller parties would support him.
“Russians invading Ukraine helps Karins to secure voters in Latvia because in such times people tend to rally around the flag,” Krastins said.
Storm ‘will only get stronger’
“The results are not bad but what…
Source : france24
