{"id":19787,"date":"2026-05-28T18:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/latvia-parliament-approves-new-government-after-drone-row-topples-coalition-wkzo\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:30:20","slug":"latvia-parliament-approves-new-government-after-drone-row-topples-coalition-wkzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/latvia-parliament-approves-new-government-after-drone-row-topples-coalition-wkzo\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvia parliament approves new government after drone row topples coalition – WKZO"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Janis Laizans and Andrius Sytas
RIGA, May 28 (Reuters) \u2013 Latvia\u2019s parliament on Thursday approved the formation of a new government, making centre-right opposition lawmaker Andris Kulbergs prime minister ahead of an October election, after \u200brecent drone incursions that brought down the ruling coalition.
In the Saeima, \u200c66 members out of the 96 votes cast supported the centre-right four-party majority coalition made up of Kulbergs\u2019 United List, former Prime Minister Evika Silina\u2019s New Unity, the National Alliance and the Greens and Farmers\u2019 Union.
Security is high on the incoming government\u2019s list of priorities, \u200cincluding \u200bfor Latvia\u2019s borders, the economy and energy, Kulbergs told \u2060parliament ahead of the vote.
\u201cPeople \u2060will very quickly tell us whether we have done well or done poorly, the October 3 (general election) \u2026 will be the verdict on this government,\u201d he said.
The four parties in a joint statement pledged to continue the \u200bprevious government\u2019s support for Ukraine, and to focus on national security and \u201cimplementing measures to weaken and isolate Russia\u201d.
A key priority will also be \u201cthe secure conduct \u2060of elections\u201d, the new government said.
The cabinet retains \u2060Baiba Braze as the foreign minister, while Maris Kucinskis becomes \u200bfinance minister, and Colonel Raivis Melnis defence minister.
The Progressives Party, part of Silina\u2019s \u200boutgoing coalition, was left outside the new government, tilting the cabinet \u200cfurther to the right.
The Baltic nations remain steadfast in their support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, however, and Latvia\u2019s October election is only expected to reinforce Riga\u2019s commitment.
Armed Ukrainian drones straying into the Baltic region\u2019s airspace stoke concerns \u2060that the war in Ukraine is spilling over into NATO\u2019s northern borders with Russia, forcing people to take shelter and schools and kindergartens to close amid alerts.
When \u2060a Ukrainian drone on May \u200c7 hit an empty oil tank in Latvia, Silina \u2060sacked her defence minister over what she said were \u200binadequate defensive \u200cmeasures by the military, which in turn led to \u200bthe collapse \u2060of her coalition.
The incidents have added to tensions between Moscow and the Baltic states, which blame Russia for electronically diverting drones, while the Kremlin has accused them of enabling Ukrainian launches from their territory, which they deny.
(Reporting by Janis Laizans in Riga and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, writing by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje \u200bSolsvik and Nick Zieminski)
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By Janis Laizans and Andrius SytasRIGA, May 28 (Reuters) \u2013 Latvia\u2019s parliament on Thursday approved the formation of a new government, making centre-right opposition lawmaker Andris Kulbergs prime minister ahead of an October election, after \u200brecent drone incursions that brought down the ruling coalition.In the Saeima, \u200c66 members out of the 96 votes cast supported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}