Latvia’s Prime Minister to Step Down

Latvia’s center-right prime minister, Krisjanis Karins, said on Monday that he would step down later this week after the two other members of his three-party governing coalition refused a cabinet reshuffle.

Mr. Karins said on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the two other parties — the conservative National Alliance and the centrist electoral alliance United List — were “blocking work for welfare and economic growth.”

Mr. Karins, 56, had planned to stay on as prime minister after announcing a new round of coalition talks, but the two partners said that it was against the Latvian Constitution to do so, the Baltic News Service said.

After the general election in October, the three parties signed a deal two months later to form a coalition government. Together, they have 54 seats in Latvia’s 100-seat Parliament, the Saeima.

On Friday, Mr. Karins announced his intention to end the current grouping and form a new government coalition after the two parties rejected his proposals for a ministerial reshuffle and revised priorities.

Latvia and its Baltic neighbors, Estonia and Lithuania, have been hit hard by an energy crisis since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

The three countries, which had depended heavily on natural gas from Russia, cut off deliveries after the invasion. Latvia now relies mainly on its own gas reserves and on imports from Lithuania, though cross-border supply has dwindled in the past weeks amid a cold spell.

Latvia has one of the highest inflation rates in the European Union, though the price rises have eased in the past six months. The rate was 6.4 percent in July.

Latvian television said that Mr. Karins, who was born in Wilmington, Del., has asked his party, New Unity, to propose a new candidate for prime minister and that he would submit his resignation to President Edgars Rinkevics on Thursday.

The next parliamentary election in Latvia is scheduled for 2026.