Parties still haven't met to name potential new PM

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Latvia's president Raimonds Vējonis expects parties elected into the 13th Saeima to name a PM candidate by November 26.

Nevertheless, the parties have not conducted any talks for the past three days, and the president has issued a defiant message saying he has a "plan B" should the parties not reach a compromise. 

"There's silence. Everyone is sitting in their own trenches waiting for the president to name a candidate," Vējonis told LNT commercial television.

The president told LNT that if the parties do not reach a compromise, he has a plan B. Seeing as he has ruled out calling an extraordinary election, it possibly involves naming an independent candidate for PM.

"If no one from the [elected parties] does not agree or has no support in the parliament, someone from the outside would be sought," he said.

KPV LV party's candidate Aldis Gobzems is currently blocking chances for an agreement between the parties, saying that the president not the parties should make the first step, i.e. name a candidate.

"Article 56 of the Latvian Constitution says that the president has to choose the PM candidate who is the best and strongest for all the public. In the current case, KPV LV, as the winning party of the right-of-center bloc, has named its candidate," said Gobzems, who is the party's candidate for PM.

Meanwhile the Development/For! party says it's trying to find a compromise.

"We haven't decided on the main thing, i.e. who's the sole candidate for PM. It's the big homework we have to do, what the parties have to do. Some time has passed. Of course, we're not exactly happy about this but still have not lost hope to find a candidate to name on Monday," said Daniels Pavļuts, the head of Development/For!'s Saeima faction.

As reported, after another round of consultations with the political parties represented in the 13th Saeima, President Raimonds Vējonis did not name a new candidate for prime minister on Tuesday and gave the parties until November 26 to agree on Latvia's next coalition.

The president indicated that for the time being none of the two candidates for prime minister proposed by the political parties has a clear support of parliamentary majority.

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