Kulbergs wins Latvia election by record margin, eyes pro-Ukraine coalition
Latvia's Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs has won Saturday's parliamentary election with 35.3% of the vote — 42 of 100 seats, the biggest win since independence in 1991 — and pledged to form a pro-Ukraine coalition with a hard line on Russia.
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs has won Saturday’s parliamentary election with a record margin — the biggest victory since the country regained independence in 1991. With 97 per cent of ballots counted, his centrist United List took 35.3 per cent of the vote, enough for 42 seats in the 100-seat Saeima Reuters.
Kulbergs, 47, a businessman and amateur rally driver, came to power in May after the previous coalition collapsed over stray Ukrainian military drones that flew undetected into Latvia — a diversion officials blamed on Russia Reuters via ThePrint. Pledging a hard line towards Moscow on election night, he said: “Any economic ties with Russia makes us weak. Yes, it can bring some extra money, but it’s a weakness Russia might exploit.”
The populist, MAGA-style Latvia First finished second with 13.1 per cent, followed by the pro-Russian Sovereign Power party on 11.7 per cent and the nationalist National Alliance on 8.9 per cent. Turnout was 51.8 per cent, down from 59.4 per cent in 2022.
United List needs 51 seats for a majority and can get there with either the National Alliance or the liberal Progressives. “It’s remarkably good. I was not expecting such a result,” Kulbergs said at his party’s headquarters in Riga Japan Times.
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