Right-of-center parties signal willingness to team up

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Politicians from the National Alliance and New Conservative Party have similar positions on many issues, and the two parties' complicated relations in the past will not hamper constructive cooperation, the two parties' leaders said after a meeting October 10.

The New Conservative Party's candidate for prime minister Janis Bordans told reporters that he and the National Alliance's Chairman Raivis Dzintars discussed a range of matters during the meeting, and agreed that the two parties' values were similar.

Bordans was formerly a member and cabinet minister of the nationalist National Alliance until he split with the party in 2013 and formed the slightly more moderate New Conservative Party a year later. The move created a good deal of bad blood and the election campaign saw the two parties sniping at each other, but that all appears to have been set aside for the moment.

Dzintars said that this was the first successful meeting and the talks today were very open and direct. The two parties have a lot in common, especially regarding ideological values where they will be able to successfully cooperate, regardless of what the next ruling coalition is like.

"Our organizations have a long history of complicated relations, but we agreed that this history may not hamper constructive work," said Dzintars. The new parliament will be fragmented, therefore each party has to be able to make one step forward to other parties in order to to set up an effective government and pass the next state budget, he added.

As reported, according to the preliminary election results, Harmony party has won 23 seats in the 13th Saeima, KPV LV and the New Conservative Party will have sixteen MPs each, For Development/For and National Alliance - thirteen MPs each, Greens/Farmers - eleven, and New Unity - eight MPs.

A combination of the New Conservatives and National Alliance would provide 29 seats, which could form the core of a new coalition but is still a long way short of the 51 seats that would give a parliamentary majority.

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