In the Riga city council, the "Progressives" want to keep only one deputy chairman of the city council instead of the current three vice-mayors. The National Alliance, whose representative is currently one of the vice mayors, does not agree with this opinion.
"Purely in terms of content, there are no insurmountable disagreements, but I didn't see that there was really a chance to agree, because our faction did not start this conflict," said Einars Cilinskis, a councilor representing the National Alliance.
The Progressives want to reduce the number of vice-mayors, but they don't want to give up their own, said the deputy chairman of the council Edvards Ratnieks (also of the NA/LRA bloc).
On the other hand, the "Progressives", have indicated that some form of compromise will need to be reached in order to elect a mayor.
"We don't see that our colleagues from NA are ready to take such a big step as we are," said Mārtiņš Kossovičs, chairman of the "For!/Progressive" faction of the Riga City Council.
Riga councilors will continue negotiations on the formation of a new coalition and the election of a mayor next week. The city council was thrown into turmoil earlier in July with the sudden resignation of mayor Mārtiņš Staķis. The prospect of snap local elections has been raised, but most of the parties in the municipal chamber are doing their best to avoid that measure.
