Two of KPV LV's 16 Saeima deputies - Linda Liepiņa and Karina Sprūde - announced on Facebook that they were not inclined to support a future Kariņš government, even if KPV LV is part of it.
.@kpv_lv deputātes Linda Liepiņa un Karina Sprūde sociālajā tīklā “Facebook” paziņojušas, ka neatbalstīs @krisjaniskarins veidoto valdību. Premjera amata kandidāts šodien iecērējis tikties ar KPV LV frakciju, liecina LTV rīcībā esošā informācija. pic.twitter.com/htq7XOJto8
— LTV Ziņu dienests (@ltvzinas) January 18, 2019
Liepiņa said she took exception to the lack of a commitment to immediately do away with the "OIK" electricity surcharge and that if such a thing did appear she might "try to persuade her right hand to vote FOR," even though she didn't like it.
"I didn't come into politics in order to listen to and believe bullshit," she said in a phrase aimed at Kariņš' fellow party member Arvils Ašeradens and his own attempts to resolve the OIK situation.
Sprūde's wording in her statement was similar, right down to an identical affirmation that she, too, had not come into politics in order to listen to and believe bullshit and that her right hand, like Liepiņa's, would require considerable persuasion.
According to the information available to LTV, Kariņš intends to meet with the KPV LV parliamentary faction on January 18th.
The views of the two Saeima deputies emerged a day after KPV LV's former Prime Ministerial nominee, Aldis Gobzems, said joining a Kariņš administration would be a "mistake". Gobzems was the second nominee PM named by President Raimonds Vējonis, but his attempt to form a government foundered.
Tensions within the relatively young KPV LV party appear to be on a rolling boil. As previously reported by LSM, earlier this week an attempt by party members to strip party founder Artuss Kaimiņš of a role on a parliamentary committee narrowly failed, with the party split on the matter in a no-confidence vote.
KPV LV holds 16 of the Saeima's 100 mandates and would hold three ministerial posts in a Kariņš-led executive, according to initial plans.
On January 7, President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis nominated Krišjānis Karins as Prime Minister to lead a five-party coalition government made up of New Unity, the New Conservative Party (JKP), Development/For!, the National Alliance and KPV LV.
The parties hope to hold a Saeima vote approving a new administration by the end of January.
Parliamentary elections took place on October 6, 2018 and talks abotu forming a government have been continuing ever since.
