“This Thursday I will submit the resignation of myself and this cabinet to the president,” he told a press conference.

Alongside its Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia is a leading voice in pushing the European Union and Nato to increase pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Karins’ centre-right New Unity party won a national election in October 2022, gaining 26 of 100 seats in a fractured parliament where seven parties are represented. He blamed coalition partners for “blocking the work for prosperity and economic growth” for today’s decision, according to a posting on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Karins’s party governed the EU nation of 1.9 million, with support from the conservative National Alliance and the United List of smaller parties giving him a narrow parliamentary majority.

But relations with the coalition soured after it failed to field a joint candidate for a presidential election in May.

On Friday, Karins made an abortive attempt to bring more parties into government.

They included the left-leaning Progressives party and the Greens and the Farmers Union, a coalition of conservative groups fronted by Aivars Lembergs, the mayor of port town Ventspils who was put on a US sanctions list for alleged corruption in 2019.

Karins’ New Unity party plans to select its candidate for prime minister on Wednesday, he said.

President Edgars Rinkevics has the responsibility of giving a mandate to a new prime minister to try to form a government. That candidate would also face a parliamentary vote of confidence.

Latvia’s next parliamentary election is scheduled for 2026.