The Presidium of the Latvian parliament on January 17 accepted Balodis' official notification about leaving the party. Upon his withdrawal, the NSL faction is left with just four members but, under the parliament's Rules of Procedure, any faction must have at least five members.
Forming a faction guarantees certain organizational and procedural privileges.
The four remaining NSL lawmakers - Inguna Sudraba, Gunars Kutris, Aivars Meija and Romans Mezeckis - will now continue working in the parliament as independent lawmakers while the party itself remains in existence.
The parliament will also have to take a decision about recalling the NSL representatives from the two parliamentary committees to which they had been appointed - the committee on national security and the committee on mandates, ethics and submissions.
As previously reported by LSM, Balodis quit the party over the handling of the so-called "oligarch conversations" special commission headed by party leader Inguna Sudraba.
