Latvia's government has shaky majority

The parliament in Riga on Tuesday confirmed the new government led by Valdis Dombrovskis of the Unity alliance, who was previously prime minister. But his coalition majority is extremely shaky, the online paper Ir concludes: "Never in the history of Latvia has a head of government been elected for a third term, and all of the ministers proposed by Dombrovskis also received the necessary approval. There is an old saying that goes: 'The rich man does what he wants, the poor man does what he can'. A head of government is rich if his party has at least 51 seats [of 100] in parliament. But up to now Latvia's prime ministers have always been poor: to form a government they have had to enter a coalition, and this is also true for Dombrovskis' coalition. It is particularly complicated this time round: for a majority the three partners must also win the votes of the six deviationists from [ex-president] Zatler's Reform Party (ZRP), of which Klāvs Olšteins is considered to be leader. It will be an awkward task to hold these 56 MPs together."

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