Latvia's Evika Silina resigns after coalition cracks over stray drone incidents

# Latvia's Evika Silina resigns after coalition cracks over stray drone incidents

The prime minister quit after her left-leaning coalition partner withdrew support, leaving no majority in parliament ahead of October elections.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina resigned on Thursday after her coalition lost its parliamentary majority, according to the supplied AP and DW reports. The immediate trigger was the decision by the Progressives Party, her left-leaning coalition partner, to withdraw support from the government. Once that happened, Silina no longer had the votes needed to govern. The resignation came just months before general elections due in October.

The political fallout was tied to a series of incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine crossing into Latvian territory. AP reported that on May 7, two suspected Ukrainian drones entered Latvia and one crashed at a fuel storage facility. DW said the incidents followed the resignation of Defense Minister Andris Spruds, who had been forced out over how the government handled the drone episodes. Silina then took over the defense portfolio on an interim basis before the coalition collapsed.

The reports show that the issue was not just one bad incident but a broader argument about state readiness. Silina said the drone events showed the political leadership of the defense sector had failed to deliver on the promise of safe skies. Critics said the incidents exposed weaknesses in Latvia's ability to respond to military threats. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha later said the drones were diverted by Russian electronic warfare, though that was his explanation, not a verified conclusion in the supplied evidence.

Silina framed her resignation as a matter of responsibility. AP reported that she wrote on X that her priority had always been the well-being and security of Latvia's people and that parties and coalitions change, but Latvia endures. DW added that she said she was resigning but not giving up, and that she had tried to hold together very different political forces. The statement was a political farewell as much as a resignation note: she cast the collapse as a failure of coalition discipline and narrow party interests.

The president now has the job of choosing a new prime minister. AP said Edgars Rinkevics would meet representatives of all parliamentary parties on Friday, which means the resignation is not the end of the story but the start of a new round of consultations. The coalition that Silina led had already been under strain over several issues, and the loss of majority support over the drone handling gave that strain a decisive result.

For Latvia, the verified facts are clear. A prime minister resigned after her coalition split, the defense minister had already gone, stray drones had crossed into the country and elections are looming. The supply of evidence does not let the story go further than that. What it does show is a government brought down by a security dispute that became a political one.

The coming talks in Riga will determine whether Silina's exit leads to a rapid replacement or a longer caretaker period.