RIGA - Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and his coalition partners agreed yesterday to work on forming a majority government after an election win which kept Latvia on a path of austerity aimed at eventual euro zone entry.
Mr Dombrovskis's Unity bloc won 33 seats in the vote on Saturday, while his two coalition partners got a combined 30 seats, giving a total of 63 seats in the 100-seat parliament.
"We discussed the possibilities for further co-operation and we are ready to continue work," Mr Dombrovskis told reporters after meeting the Union of Greens and Farmers, which won 22 seats.
"We also agreed that Latvia's economic stabilisation programme and agreement with lenders must be further implemented," he added.
He later met the third coalition partner, the nationalist Everything for Latvia/For Fatherland and Freedom bloc, which won eight seats.
The vote was a triumph for Mr Dombrovskis, who has already steered Latvia through harsh budget cuts and tax rises to meet the terms of a €7.5 billion bailout agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU.
More austerity awaits the nation of 2.2 million people to reduce the budget deficit on the path to euro entry, which is targeted for 2014.
Despite the budget cuts, Latvians have regarded Mr Dombrovskis as an honest crisis manager of the mess left by other governments.
The economy has also begun to show a slow recovery from the 18 per cent economic drop of 2009, the worst in the EU. - (Reuters)