According to political scientist Janis Ikstens, the election campaign for the XV Saeima in Latvia began as early as mid-last year. Many breathed a sigh of relief that the Silinie government withstood the debates over the country's main financial document. However, after the adoption of the state budget for 2026, "these fundamental, also ideological, contradictions have not gone anywhere."
"There is still a long way to go until the voting day, and there will be quite a few twists and turns along the way," notes J. Ikstens. "We have already seen how, literally within two weeks, Hermanis exited the game and then re-entered... We do not yet know how many times he will enter and exit again and what other characters will do something."
"In fact, we are talking about the fact that several parties — six or seven — have equal support, between 5 and 10 percent — it’s not 25 and 10, here different percentages can change relatively easily, especially considering that voter loyalty to parties is low, they can relatively easily change their favorites. I think there are many opportunities during this time to fight and convince the public that we have the best proposal, we have the most competent people."
J. Ikstens also believes that the dominant political scheme in Latvia is 'quite boring.' "Opposition members and newcomers say — everything is bad, the government is working unsatisfactorily... In turn, the ruling coalition talks about how many different achievements there are and that they have an extremely large number of wonderful initiatives."
