Vejonis: I'll nominate PM myself

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Hopes that Latvia might have some idea who will to lead it in 2016 proved over-optimistic Wednesday when President Raimonds Vejonis announced he was giving political parties another week to get their acts together. 

Speaking after a third round of talks Wednesday morning with the three parties in the current ruling coalition (Unity, Greens and Farmers Union, National Alliance), Vejonis said all three parties would also need to be in the next government but stopped short of saying who he thought should be Prime Minister - perhaps understandable given the fact than not a single one of the three parties has officially put forward a candidate for the job.

However, he did say that as the parties had failed to nominate anyone, he would use his constitutional right to do so next week.

"I gave the opportunity to the parties to negotiate and to find a stable and effective coalition model. Political parties did not avail themselves of this opportunity," Vejonis said.

"I am convinced that the political parties have a lot of professional people who are capable of taking responsibility. Therefore, using all the rights conferred by the Constitution, I am taking the initiative of nominating a Prime Minister-designate," he explained, while adding that doing so would force him to cancel a planned holiday so he could talk to potential PMs next week.

The parties have proven incapable of scratching together a coalition government, despite weeks of negotiations following the resignation of Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma on December 7.

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