Pro-NATO Party Wins Latvian Elections

On Saturday, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins' center-right party New Unity won the parliamentary elections, an exit poll conducted by the research center SKDS showed.

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As of noon on Sunday, authorities had counted 1,019 out of 1,055 polling stations. The New Unity Party had obtained 18.9 percent of the votes, which represents an increase of 6.7 percent with respect to the 2018 elections.

Although this result will allow Karins to have a majority of seats in parliament, he will have to start his administration facing the possible loss of two members of the outgoing coalition. The next parliament will be highly fragmented as various parties will have seats in it.

The parliament will include the social democratic "Greens & Farmers Union" (12.66 percent), the coalition of regional parties "United List" (10.98 percent), and the centrist "National Union" (9.31 percent). The vote count could also give seats to the organization Attistibai/Par! and the social democratic party "Progressives".

Stability!, an organization supported by the Russian-speaking minority, won 6.75 percent of the vote, which would give it some representation in Parliament. However, another historical Russian-speaking party like "Harmonie" will not have seats.

Stability!, an organization supported by the Russian-speaking minority, won 6.75 percent of the vote, which would give it some representation in Parliament. However, another historical Russian-speaking party like "Harmonie" will not have seats.

The results of the elections on October 1 were marked by the influence of the Ukrainian conflict in regional geopolitics and local expectations. Two days before the elections, President Egils Levits invited citizens to go to the polls but warned them about the intentions of the parties closer to the large Russian-speaking minority.

According to Levits, these organizations refused to say clearly "who was the aggressor and who was the victim" at the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

"The election result reinforces the foreign policy held by this Baltic country so far," the Italian newspaper Il Post asserts, explaining that Latvia has been in favor of increasing international sanctions against Russia and militarily reinforcing the borders of the NATO countries.