For the second year in a row, Latvia has slipped in an index that ranks countries according to perceptions of how corrupt they are.

Latvia earned a score of 4.3 and dropped to a ranking of 59th in the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index released Oct. 26 by the Berlin-based Transparency International. Last year, Latvia received a score of 4.5 and ranked 56th.

Two years ago, Latvia scored 5.0, its highest result since 1998 when the country was first included in the index.

Transparency International, which describes itself as a global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, used various surveys to evaluate 178 countries for the 2010 survey.

Nearly three-fourths of the countries in this year’s index scored below five, on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have a low level of corruption).

“These results signal that significantly greater efforts must go into strengthening governance across the globe,” Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, said in a press release announcing the 2010 results. “With the livelihoods of so many at stake, governments’ commitments to anti-corruption, transparency and accountability must speak through their actions. Good governance is an essential part of the solution to the global policy challenges governments face today.”

In Latvia, the anti-corruption organization Delna—an affiliate of Transparency International—called on the government to spend more resources to battle the problem. The economic crisis in the country has fed corruption, the organization noted in a press release.

Among European Union members, Latvia ranks 25th, ahead of Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and last-place Greece.

In the global index, Estonia earned a score of 6.5, down from the 6.6 recorded last year. Nonetheless, Estonia saw its ranking rise one spot to 26th.

Lithuania earned 5.0, up from the 4.9 it received last year. Lithuania’s ranking rose to 46th, up from 52nd last year.

First in the index are Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore, all with a score of 9.3. The United States, scoring 7.1, ranked 22nd. Russia, with a score of 2.1, ranked 154th. Ranked last is Somalia, with an index of 1.1.

In compiling the Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International used information from up to 13 different institutions, such as the World Economic Forum, Global Insight, Freedom House and the World Bank.

A nationalist political alliance will not be part of a new government for Latvia after all, leaders of the Vienotība (Unity) group have decided.

Just days after agreeing to include the nationalist alliance Visu Latvijai! – Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK (All for Latvia! – For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK), the centrist Vienotība found itself backtracking after disagreement arose in its ranks about the makeup of the new government.

In an Oct. 22 press conference, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said that the nationalists and the center-right Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība (Union of Greens and Farmers, or ZZS) would join his Vienotība in the new government. The nationalists even were promised the justice minister’s portfolio. All that remained was for the three political forces to agree on how the rest of the ministerial portfolios would be allocated and for President Valdis Zatlers to formally invite Dombrovskis to form the new government.

However, on Oct. 25 one of the three parties that make up Vienotība, Sabiedrība citai politikai (Association for a Different Politics, or SCP), vetoed the notion of giving the nationalists a voice in the government.

That will leave just Vienotība and ZZS to form the new government. With 55 seats in the new Saeima, the two-party coalition government would still have a majority, but significantly thinner than the 63 seats it would have had with the nationalists in tow.

The nationalists at first were not going to be part of the government, but after agreeing to subsume their political agenda to that of the coalition government, were invited to join Vienotība and ZZS.

SCP leader Artis Pabriks labeled the nationalists as “monopolists of patriotism” who are opposed to persons who are not ethnic Latvians, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, Visu Latvijai! finds itself in a battle over its public image. After suggestions that the party had taken money from the Chechen community in Latvia, Visu Latvijai! leaders turned to the prosecutor general’s office and the Security Police to help determine who is behind the rumors, according to an Oct. 22 posting on the party’s website.

Earlier plans to bring the center-left and pro-Russian Saskaņas Centrs (Harmony Centre) into the government also collapsed. Saskaņas Centrs in the Oct. 2 Saeima electon won control of 29 seats in the new parliament.

The next government of Latvia likely will be a three-party coalition that will include representation from a nationalist group, officials of Vienotība (Unity) have announced.

Barriers to including the nationalist Visu Latvijai! – Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK (All for Latvia! – For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK), which some critics have said is too far to the right, have disappeared. The nationalists are expected to join Vienotība and the Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība (Union of Greens and Farmers, or ZZS) in the new government.

Participation of the nationalists in the new government was cleared after VL-TB/LNNK agreed to pursue its issues—such as citizenship and status of the Latvian language—only with the agreement of all coalition partners.

In addition, the new government would have one ministry less, according to an announcement posted Oct. 22 on Vienotība’s website. The Ministry for Regional Development and Local Government Affairs would be dismantled and its functions handed to the Ministry of the Environment.

President Valdis Zatlers, on a state visit to China, has yet to formally ask Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovsksis to form the new government, but the invitation is expected soon. The new Saeima, which convenes Nov. 2, will have to confirm the new government. The three parties in the proposed coalition control 63 seats in the 100-deputy parliament, so approval of a new Dombrovskis government seems assured.

With the proposed liquidation of the regional development ministry, the new government would be left with 13 ministerial posts to fill. According to party announcements and media reports, Vienotība and ZZS could each take six ministries, while VL-TB/LNNK has been offered the justice minister’s portfolio.

ZZS, according to an announcement on the party’s website, would keep control of the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Welfare. Negotiations with Vienotība continue about other portfolios.