United List wants to chair five Saeima committees
Finance Minister Māris Kučinskis, who will lead the United List faction in the 15th Saeima, told news agency LETA which five committees the party would like to chair. He said a committee could also go to the opposition if it has a capable leader.
The party United List (AS) would like to chair five committees in the newly elected 15th Saeima, Latvia's parliament. Finance Minister Māris Kučinskis, who will head the AS faction in the new parliamentary term, said this in an interview with the news agency LETA, published on 8 November while talks on forming a new government are under way.
Five strategic committees
Kučinskis named the following committees as strategically important:
- Budget and Finance (Taxation) Committee;
- National Economy, Agrarian, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee;
- Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee;
- State Administration and Local Government Committee;
- Foreign Affairs Committee.
He said AS would definitely chair the Budget and National Economy committees. At the same time, the minister acknowledged that the future of the National Economy Committee is still being discussed because it is overloaded. In his view, splitting it into two committees should be considered so the work can be done better.
Opposition could get a role
Kučinskis noted that AS spent almost 2.5 years in opposition. He allowed that a committee may be entrusted to the opposition if it has a capable chair. As an example, he named Oļegs Burovs, whom he would again put in charge of the local government committee, saying he worked there himself and "everything was in order".
Kučinskis stressed that a prime minister must not be separated from finance, arguing that Latvian examples show this has hurt prime ministers. According to him, the prime minister is answerable for foreign affairs and needs a very good foreign minister. He said he himself will not have time to chair a committee, though he could work in one and share his experience.
Forming the government
President Edgars Rinkēvičs, after the 15th Saeima convened, tasked AS politician Andris Kulbergs with forming the new government. Kulbergs hopes to present a model of the new Cabinet by mid-November. Possible scenarios mentioned include AS cooperating with the National Alliance and New Unity, an AS and National Alliance government, or an AS minority government relying on support from the party Latvia First.
In the Saeima elections, AS won 41 seats, Latvia First 17, the alliance Sovereign Power/Alliance of New Latvians 15, the National Alliance and the Progressives ten each, and New Unity seven.
