Lībiņa-Egnere will perform the duties of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs for two days

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This decision regarding the replacement of members of the government was made because Silina will visit Austria.

As reported, Prime Minister Siliņa also temporarily fulfills the duties of Minister of Foreign Affairs as of today, as former Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV) resigned from the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in connection with the scandal of private flights during the Prime Minister’s tenure.

For several months now, the scandal regarding the private flights used by the delegations led by Kariņš during his premiership has been relevant in the public space, which has drawn criticism from a part of society. From 2021 to September 2023, according to the information collected by the State Chancellery, 613,830 euros were spent on private flights for the business trips of Kariņas and his employees, but together with the part of the costs covered by the European Union, the expenses reach 1.36 million euros.

The General Prosecutor’s Office announced in the second half of March that it had started criminal proceedings for the possible waste of funds in connection with the use of charter flights for these business trips.

The State Audit Office, on the other hand, has established in the audit that illegal and uneconomic actions, organizing the special flights of the former Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, have caused unjustified expenses of around 545,000 euros to the budgets of Latvia and the Council of the European Union (EU).

The State Audit Office believes that by using special flights even in cases when the state of emergency was not declared and when alternatives to regular commercial flights were available in a reasonable time, illegal behavior with state budget funds was allowed, which resulted in additional state budget expenses of at least 221,566 euros. On the other hand, according to the estimates of the State Audit Office, the allowed non-economic behavior caused additional expenses of at least 323,688 euros for the Council of the EU.

As stated by the State Audit Office, the information obtained during the audit shows that the then Prime Minister Kariņš, as well as the Prime Minister’s Office and the State Chancellery under his direct authority, were actually involved in making and implementing decisions about the use of special flights on foreign missions. At that time, the Prime Minister’s office was headed by the current member of the Saeima, Jānis Patmalnieks (JV), while the State Chancellery is headed by Jānis Citskovskis.

As reported, this week, the upcoming candidate for the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Saeima will probably not be decided yet, confirmed the head of the government Siliņa after the coalition meeting. Discussions are still ongoing and Siliņa wants to be sure that the candidate that the “New Unity” politician will name for the coalition will also have the political ability to represent Latvia.

Several names have been mentioned in the sidelines as possible candidates for the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs – former parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica (JV), member of the Saeima Ęirts Valdis Kristovskis (JV), ambassador for special tasks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže, etc.

The rotation of existing government ministers was previously allowed in the backroom. As one version, the current Minister of Defense Andras Sprudas (P) has been rotated to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, thus leaving the post in the Ministry of Defense vacant. However, “Progressive” politicians state that the handshake will not take place. Also, the possibility that the current Minister of Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere (JV) could occupy the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs was previously allowed, however Lībiņa-Egnere rejected such an offer.