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Latvia's FinMin declines president's offer to become new PM

Xinhua, January 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Latvia's Finance Minister Janis Reirs of the ruling center-right Unity party on Thursday declined President Raimonds Vejonis' offer to take the helm of the country's next government, local media reported.

Reirs said he had a meeting with Vejonis on Thursday during which he received the offer to form the new cabinet.

Reirs told the president, however, that he did not want to take the post of prime minister and that he would prefer to carry on as finance minister also in the new government if he was offered the job.

Latvia's outgoing Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, who announced her resignation in December, told reporters on Thursday evening that President Vejonis might nominate a prime minister-designate this Friday, Jan. 8.

"I will not give any names. The president will name the candidate and then we will discuss it," Straujuma said when asked to comment Reirs' decision not to run for prime minister.

Karlis Sadurskis, chairman of the parliament budget and finance (taxation) committee, is seen as the next most likely candidate Unity might propose for the post of prime minister.

President Vejonis holds meetings with potential candidates behind closed doors this week. Endit