Latvia exit polls put PM's pro-Ukraine party ahead but coalition partners stumble

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs' pro-Ukraine and pro-Europe party, United List, was seen winning a parliamentary election on Saturday with 35.6% of the vote, according to an exit poll by public broadcaster LSM. This put the party in a comfortable lead, with the populist Latvia First party in second place with 11.3% of the vote, nearly double its share in the 2022 election.

Kulbergs said the result was "remarkably good" and that he was not expecting such a result. He also stated that he would not cooperate with any pro-Russian parties and specifically ruled out forming a coalition with Latvia First, which had courted the country's substantial ethnic Russian minority.

The election, which saw 100 seats in the Saeima being contested by 14 parties, was dominated by rising living costs and national security concerns in the small Baltic country, which borders both Russia and Belarus. Around 1.5 million people were eligible to vote in the country's 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Brief written by urgent.news from France 24, DW English (Top Stories), DW News — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.