Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa Resigns in Shock Move After Week of Scandals and Drone Incidents

Latvia's centre-right Prime Minister Evika Siliņa announced on Thursday that she will resign, triggering the collapse of the country's governing coalition just months before key parliamentary elections scheduled for October. The decision follows a week of political turmoil, including a defence minister's resignation over a drone incident and a separate high-profile corruption investigation that has seen two senior officials detained.

"Today, I have made the difficult but honest decision – to step down from the position of Prime Minister," Siliņa wrote on X, in comments that mirrored a televised address. She said her priorities have always been Latvia's security and people, but that "political envy and narrow party interests" have taken precedence over responsibility.

Siliņa's resignation effectively ends the tripartite governing coalition, which had been under strain for months. The immediate trigger was the resignation of Defence Minister Andris Sprūds, a left-leaning politician from the Progressives Party. Sprūds left after Siliņa called for his resignation, and following revelations that Latvia's air defences had been breached by Ukrainian drones that had been diverted from Russia. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sunday that the incidents were the result of Russian electronic warfare deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones away from their intended targets in Russia. He offered Ukraine's help to the Baltic states and Finland to detect and prevent such incidents, noting that Ukraine has developed highly sophisticated air defence systems after years of war largely fought with long-range missiles and drones.

Following Sprūds' departure, his Progressives Party pulled its support from the government, leaving Siliņa's Unity Party without a parliamentary majority.

President Edgars Rinkevics, who is tasked with appointing a new head of government, is set to meet with representatives of all parliamentary parties on Friday.

If the political chaos from the drone incident were not enough, a separate scandal has erupted. Latvia's Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze, and the Director of the State Chancellery, Raivis Kronbergs, have been detained by the country's Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), prosecutors confirmed to the Latvian news agency LETA. Raids were carried out at their residences and workplaces, and their phones have reportedly been switched off. Some Latvian press outlets are billing it as the most high-profile anti-corruption probe in the country's history.

The charges concern misuse of authority and alleged carelessness in the illegal allocation of government aid to companies in the timber sector. That sector is significant: timber processing is Latvia's largest industrial sector, with forests covering 3.441 million hectares of land – 53 percent of the country's territory. The industry is worth €3.3 billion, according to the Latvia Investment and Development Agency.

So, to recap: the prime minister has resigned, the defence minister left after Ukrainian drones strayed into Latvian airspace, the agriculture minister and a top civil servant have been detained in a corruption probe, and the coalition has collapsed. October's elections cannot come soon enough. For now, President Rinkevics is left to pick up the pieces. Latvia, it seems, is having a week.