Latvia's election winner seeks coalition partner

The Unity party alliance led by Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has won the parliamentary elections in Latvia but will need a partner to govern the country. The daily Latvijas Avīze wonders whether instead of working with a centre-right coalition as he has done so far he is considering a cooperation with the Harmony Centre party representing Latvia's Russian-speaking minority: "The first signals came even before the elections in the form of a meeting at a restaurant that wasn't openly announced, but wasn't kept secret either. On election night Solvita Āboltiņa [Unity] proclaimed that his party should not ignore Harmony Centre but rather seek its cooperation. Dombrovskis himself said more or less the same thing, albeit more cautiously: points of contact should be sought. It seems that Unity is less concerned right now with forming a strong government and reaffirming the voters' trust and more worried about finding a delicate way to cooperate with Harmony Centre. … Yet many people voted for Unity precisely because they wanted to prevent Harmony Centre from coming to power."

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