United List wins the Latvian general elections with 35.6% of the votes

The conservative United List party, led by Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, clearly won the general elections in Latvia this Saturday, obtaining 35.6% of the votes, according to an exit poll carried out by the LETA agency, the Stradins University of Riga and the public radio and television station LSM.

United List points to the undisputed winner of the day, followed by the rest of the parties at a distance, with the populist and national-conservative Latvia First as the second force with 11.3%. Not far from Latvia First came the social democratic Progressives party, to which the exit poll attributed 11.1%, while the pro-Russian and social-conservative electoral coalition of Sovereign Power/New Latvians is around 10.8%. The National Alliance appeared as the fifth force, with 8.7%, while the centrist New Unity managed to overcome the 5% barrier to remain in Parliament or Saeima, with 6.7%.

For Kulbergs and his party, the result represents a considerable success since his formation would have multiplied by three the result achieved in the previous elections, held in 2022 and in which AS obtained 11.14% of the votes. "It is a great show of confidence on the part of the voters. The voters have made their choice. I really value it," said the prime minister when asked about the results of the LSM survey. “We see that people want security, they want to see the State take another course, moving away from living solely on debt, and that we also think about what our country will be like later, for our children, and what future Latvia has,” he said while declining to comment on possible coalitions.

For Nueva Unidad, the party of which Evika Silina was Prime Minister until last June, the result means the electoral collapse of her party. In 2022, Silina's centrist party won the general elections with 19.19% of the vote. However, New Unity seemed to reach out to the United List when the result of the exit poll was announced, as Edmunds Jurevics, leader of the party's parliamentary group, declared that it was possible for a coalition to be formed “oriented towards European values”, which would exclude Latvia First and Sovereign Power/New Latvians.