RIGA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's President Edgars Rinkevics on Thursday tasked Welfare Minister Evika Silina, candidate of the ruling New Unity party for the position of prime minister, with forming the Baltic country's next government.
Following her official nomination, Silina said that she would start negotiations with potential coalition partners this Friday. The potential partners are the United List, the National Alliance, the Progressives, and the Union of Greens and Farmers.
Silina expects to complete the government formation talks by mid-September.
The Union of Greens and Farmers and the Progressives, who have so far been sitting in opposition, have already endorsed New Unity's initiative to form a five-party government coalition.
The United List, meanwhile, favors the previous three-party coalition with New Unity and the National Alliance. But its opposition to a broader coalition has become less categoric.
The National Alliance would also prefer to stay in coalition with New Unity and the United List and has ruled out a partnership with the Progressives because of irreconcilable ideological differences.
Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins' government fell on Aug. 17 after unsuccessful attempts to expand the coalition by including the Union of Greens and Farmers, and the Progressives. ■