It seems that the vote for the President could also be a vote for the government / Diena

“It really looks like that, and that’s what’s causing concern, not only in the ranks of the National Association (NA), but in the political environment in general. The public is also asking questions, whether words and deeds are two different things. So I would say that this rhetorical question is on the agenda,” said the politician.

He pointed out that the coalition partners are currently more ambitious than NA, but NA is not offended, the party is rather confused, whether AS and JV really should have done the way they did.

Mitrevic emphasized that when forming the government, the position of the President was not the subject of discussion – no one promised anything to anyone. “I think it’s a lesson for the future. If a political force finds its best presidential candidate, the people would really like to find it in their political ranks and, even more so, if it’s the leader of the political force, then unfortunately it’s a question of coalition formation – if not about personalities , then about the principles of how we can, without harming each other, act when choosing a presidential candidate,” said the politician.

He believes that the president should ideally not come from a political background. Mitrevic emphasized that the President must be a “superman” – in order for the President to truly be the president of the entire nation, he must be a superman with all the good qualities. “This is how NA looks at it – values, attitude, symbol, business card, bearer of family values. It generally makes sense for NA to ask the question whether there is such a thing among the existing candidates,” said Mitrevic.

For the time being, the member of the Saeima refrains from predicting whether NA will really not vote for any of the nominated candidates, because everything changes by the hour and there may be different turns.

Asked whether, in a situation where the candidate for Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs (JV), nominated by “Jaunās vietības” (JV), is elected with the votes of the opposition, NA will no longer want to remain in the coalition, Mitrevics said that if we are talking about the government or the coalition, then the coalition parties are three options. The first possibility is to preserve the existing coalition, for which “the wounds have not yet healed due to the formation of the government”, thus finding an opportunity to work in this coalition. This would mean that “our partners have to reduce their ambitions”, added Mitrevics.

The other option is for all three political forces to continue working in the opposition. On the other hand, the third option would be to work in a new coalition, but then you have to be able to explain “why you are there and what are the principles for which I ended up in a new coalition, possibly breaking some of my promises”. Mitrevics indicated that the third option to be seeded is the one that NA does not currently consider as the least possible.

According to him, the main goal should be the stability of the coalition and the ability of the government to act, because “freezing health, education, tax reforms and other issues is unfair to the society”.

As reported, all three candidates nominated for the position of President – JSC founder and businessman Uldis Pīlēns, long-time Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs and public management expert Elīnu Pinto – meet the requirements set out in the Constitution and the Law on the Election of the President of the State and can therefore apply for this position, the Saeima Mandate recognized , ethics and submissions commission.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, one of the JV leaders, Krišjānis Kariņš, calls the talks about a possible new core of the ruling coalition, which would include the Green and Peasant Union (ZZS) or “Progressives”, currently in opposition, as speculation.

Asked whether ZZS or “Progressivie” could join the current government after the presidential elections and whether a new government with a core of new parties could be formed, Kariņš refused: “You are now inviting me to speculate about the future.” He left speculation to political observers.

On the other hand, when asked whether the existing coalition parties – JV, AS and NA – will look for a new joint presidential candidate if the President is not elected on May 31, the Prime Minister said that he had previously offered it to the other two coalition partners, but had received negative answers.

That is why the JV is currently working to support the nominated candidate – Rinkēvičs – in the Saeima, noted Kariņš.

On the other hand, NA and AS politicians, after the meeting of the coalition parties, repeatedly emphasized their opposition to any changes in the composition of the coalition. On Monday, both NA politician, parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Defense Jānis Eglits, and Speaker of the Saeima Edvards Smiltēns (AS) once again expressed their disapproval of a coalition model that would include ZZS and/or “Progressives”.