Evika Silina, a member of the centre-right party Jauna Vienotiba (New Unity), became Latvia’s new prime minister and its second-ever female premier on 15 September. She is a member of the party that won Latvia’s general election in late 2022 and established a coalition government with 53 MPs. The new Silina-led coalition secured the formal confidence of the Saeima on 15 September 2023, after which Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics entrusted her with the task of forming a new government. The next Latvian parliamentary election is scheduled for 2026.
Siliņa tweeted that the declaration of the new government has been signed, with the Latvian person as the country’s main value. She also announced that next week they will decide on compensating for the disproportionate increase in electricity bills and will immediately start working on the state budget for 2024. She wrote to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Latvia is standing ready to work together with the US to advance their strategic security partnership, stand firm in their support to Ukraine, safeguard shared democratic values, and deepen their economic ties.
All three Baltic countries have female PMs for the first time. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed congratulations on Silina’s appointment as Prime Minister of Latvia. New Unity, a political party in Latvia with a liberal-conservative ideology, has consistently been part of Latvia’s coalition governments since its inception in 2010.
Silina was elected to parliament in October 2022 and was appointed as the welfare minister in the government of then-prime minister Krisjanis Karins last December. Following Karins’ resignation on August 16, New Unity proposed Silina as its prime ministerial nominee. However, Karins attempted to expand his government by including the Progressives, but this move was vetoed by the National Alliance, and by mid-August, he announced his departure from leading the NATO- and EU-member nation due to a coalition rift.
