Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina resigned Thursday after the Progressives Party pulled out of her coalition, leaving her government without a majority in parliament, the Associated Press reported. Her resignation comes with general elections due in October, and Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics is set to meet with representatives of all parliamentary parties Friday to identify a new head of government.
The immediate trigger for Silina’s resignation was the Progressives Party’s decision to withdraw support, according to the AP report. The coalition also included an agrarian party, and the governing tripartite arrangement had faced strain for months over multiple issues.
The dispute over drones played a central role in the breakdown. Silina’s resignation followed the forced resignation of her defense minister, Progressives Party’s Andris Spruds, last week, after controversy over how Latvia handled several incidents involving drones suspected to be from Ukraine.
Spruds had previously said the incidents involved drones that were likely targeting Russia but ended up in Latvia by mistake. The AP report said that on May 7, two suspected Ukrainian drones entered Latvia, with one crashing at a fuel storage facility.
Silina said that Spruds had lost her trust and that of the public. She later framed the earlier defense-minister resignation in terms of safety and responsibility for the “safe skies” she said the government had promised, saying on Sunday that the incidents “clearly demonstrated that the political leadership of the defense sector has failed to fulfill its promise of safe skies over our country.”
Critics cited the drone incidents as evidence of weaknesses in Latvia’s ability to respond to military threats. The AP said that multiple Ukrainian drones heading for Russia had hit areas in the Baltic region countries since March, and that observers pointed to those cross-border events as a warning of vulnerabilities in Latvia’s preparedness.
Silina wrote on X on Thursday that her focus remained on public security. “My priority has always been, and remains, the well-being and security of Latvia’s people,” she wrote, adding: “Parties and coalitions change, but Latvia endures. And my responsibility to society comes above all else.”
In a further escalation of the dispute over responsibility for the drone diversions, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Sunday that the incidents in Latvia were “the result of Russian electronic warfare deliberately diverting Ukrainian drones from their targets in Russia.” He also offered Ukraine’s help to the Baltic states and Finland to prevent similar incidents in the future.