Will the government be saved by... independent deputies? 0 19

As previously reported, today the Saeima gave the green light to the consideration of the 2026 budget project and the package of bills related to the budget. The vote on the transfer of the 2026 budget project showed that the plan of the head of the parliamentary faction "New Unity," Edvards Smiltēns, has started to work. Recall that the politician promised that to ensure the adoption of the budget, he would engage in dialogue with independent deputies. Today, among those who supported the transfer of the budget project to the committee were two independent deputies who were thought to have joined the opposition camp - Skaidrīte Abrahama and Andris Celapīters. It is known that the coalition is also supported by two other independent deputies - Oleg Burow and Igor Raev. Thus, even in the absence of one deputy from the coalition - Uldis Augulis, the ruling party managed to gather 52 votes. It is worth noting that to strengthen the coalition majority, the ruling party persuaded the long-ill Andris Vilks from the Union of Greens and Farmers to resign his mandate. His place was taken by Jānis Dinevičs. From this, it is not difficult to calculate that the ruling party will have at least 53 votes to adopt the budget. This means that the budget will be approved, and the government of Siliņa is not threatened by a crisis for now.

It should be noted that the budget is planned to be adopted in its final reading in the first days of December.