Latvian general election, Prime Minister Andris Kulberg's unified list wins by landslide

(Berlin/Brussels = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Gye-yeon and Hyun Yun-kyung = In the Latvian general election held on the 3rd (local time), the ruling United List (AS), to which Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs (47) belongs, won a landslide victory.

According to foreign media such as Reuters and AFP, with the vote counting almost complete, the center-right party United List led by Prime Minister Kullbergs is expected to secure 35.3% of the votes and take 42 seats in the 100-seat Saeima (parliament).

The number of seats won by the United List is about three times more than in the last general election, and is also the best performance achieved by a single party since Latvia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Prime Minister Kullbergs expressed surprise at the unexpected victory and said, "The trust given by the voters is really great," and added, "It reflects the people's desire for change, direct communication, and placing the economy as the country's top priority."

Prime Minister Kullbergs, who is nearly 2 meters tall and has a former business background, became prime minister after the previous government collapsed last May due to a poor response to drone airspace violations. Despite his relatively short political career, he has made his presence known at home and abroad through his outspokenness.

He has been communicating directly with voters in a way that has been unusual in Latvia, such as posting videos explaining his activities in detail on social media every day.

Last month, he clearly showed his anti-Russian stance on the diplomatic stage by resisting until the last minute over a plan to exclude two Russian billionaires from the European Union (EU) sanctions list.

Ahead of this general election, he insisted on a strong pro-business policy and promised to correct the country's finances, while strengthening Latvia's anti-drone capabilities and promising to maintain defense spending at 5% of gross domestic product (GDP), the highest level in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Immediately after the exit poll results were announced, he declared that he would maintain a hard-line stance against Russia, saying, "We do not cooperate with pro-Russian parties. It is our clear position that any economic relationship with Russia will weaken us and Russia will exploit this."

In this general election, the populist Latvia First Party and the pro-Russian Sovereignty Power Party also made progress by winning 17 and 14 seats, respectively, by tapping into the votes of the Russian minority. However, as Prime Minister Kullbergs has pledged to maintain a hard-line stance against Russia, these two parties are expected to be excluded from forming the government.

The current coalition partners of the ruling party led by Prime Minister Kullbergs, the hard-line anti-Russia National Coalition and the liberal-conservative New United Party, won 11 and 7 seats, respectively. If Prime Minister Kullbergs joins hands again with his current coalition partner, these three parties will secure 60 seats, more than half of the total seats.

In Latvia, the coalition government led by Prime Minister Evika Silinya collapsed and a new center-right cabinet was formed last May due to a political dispute over the response to Ukrainian drones that violated the country's airspace.

Latvia, a small country with a population of about 1.9 million people, is one of the poorest countries in the European Union (EU), but it has fully supported Ukraine and taken a hard line against Russia, with which it shares a border.

Russia has been increasing its threat this year, saying it will exercise its right to self-defense, claiming that the Baltic countries, including Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, are intentionally opening their airspace to Ukrainian drones targeting oil export facilities in the country's west. Latvia received four German Eurofighter fighter jets to defend its airspace during this general election.