Latvian President Andris Bērziņš has nominated current Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis to form the country’s next government, but he also suggested that all five political parties elected to the Saeima be included the coalition.

Bērziņš made the invitation on Oct. 19 after meeting with representatives of all parties, according to an announcement from the president’s press office.

The president’s invitation follows weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the parties. The Zatlers Reform Party (Zatlera Reformu partija, or ZRP), Unity (Vienotība) and the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”) announced Oct. 14 that they had come to terms on a three-party coalition that would be backed by 56 of the parliament’s 100 members. But two days later six ZRP MPs broke away from the party, throwing the solidity of the coalition in doubt.

Efforts to include the other two parties have run into objections. When the reformist ZRP at first tried to create a government with just the center-left Harmony Centre (Saskaņas Centrs), many voters protested that Harmony Centre’s pro-Russian stance cast doubt on its loyalty to Latvia. Efforts at broadening the coalition to include the centrist Unity and the right-wing National Alliance ran into trouble, too. The National Alliance has said it would not work with Harmony Centre. Meanwhile, ZRP leader and ex-president Valdis Zatlers has said his party would not work with the conservative Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība), which is seen as controlled by Latvia’s oligarchs.

Even a last-minute effort to strengthen the three-party coalition by inviting Jānis Duklavs of the Greens and Farmers to take the minister of agriculture’s portfolio in the new government—which would have earned the backing of his party’s 13 seats in the Saeima—was dropped after ZRP objected.

While Klāvs Olšteins and the other five MPs who split from Zatlers’ party have said they would back the Oct. 14 coalition model, the president has expressed his doubts.

Nontheless, Bērziņš said in his Oct. 19 announcement, the three-party coalition appears to be the only one that realistically could form the new government.

At the same time, the president’s invitation to Dombrovskis does not prevent the parties from working on an improved—and broader—model, according to the press office announcement.

“The first serious test of the would-be coalition’s ability to take action will be the vote on the state budget for 2012,” the president said, “which cannot become an experiment with the state and threaten the state’s international agreements.”

Once a coalition is assembled, Dombrovskis will have to present it to the Saeima for confirmation.

The new Saeima, elected Sept. 17, began work Oct. 17. Zatlers, who campaigned on ridding the parliament of the influence of oligarchs and on reforming government and politics, suffered his first defeat, losing in his bid to become speaker of the Saeima. Unity’s Solvita Āboltiņa, who served as speaker in the previous Saeima, was elected instead.

Just when it seemed Latvia’s political world had reached some sort of equilibrium with news that agreement has been reached on a new coalition government, six newly elected MPs from the Zatlers Reform Party (ZRP) announced Oct. 16 that they turning independent.

The six—Klāvs Olšteins, Elīna Siliņa, Gunārs Rusiņš, Jānis Upenieks, Viktors Valainis and Jānis Junkurs—told Latvian media they are unhappy with what they see as “undemocratic” maneuvering within ZRP, the party headed by ex-President Valdis Zatlers.

Olšteins is the apparent leader of the breakaway group and for some there had been talk in ZRP of kicking him out for his “destructive work” in the party, ZRP spokeswoman Daiga Holma said in a statement.

While politicians were scrambling to salvage the proposed coalition, the breakway MPs demanded that they get to name two of the ministers in the new government, according to media reports. Specifically, they want to pick the ministers of interior and of transportation.

ZRP announced Oct. 14 that it had reached agreement with Unity (Vienotība) and the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”) to create a new government to be headed by current Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis.

Under the coalition agreement, the minister of the interior would be named by ZRP while the transportation minister would have been non-partisan. According to Holma, Olšteins has declared that he wants to be the interior minister.

The three parties in the coalition would have controlled 56 out of the 100 seats in the Saeima, but with the six deputies announcing that they are leaving it could mean that the coalition could count on only half of MPs to side with it.

The new parliament, elected Sept. 17, is set to meet for the first time on Oct. 17. Under the Latvian constitution, Latvia’s president invites a prime ministerial candidate to form the new government, which must then be confirmed by the Saeima.

Latvia’s president is expected to invite current Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis to form the country’s next government after the new parliament meets for the first time Oct. 17.

The new government is expected to be a three-party coalition including the Zatlers Reform Party (Zatlera Reformu partija, or ZRP), the centrist Unity (Vienotība) and the right-wing National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”). Together the three parties will control 56 seats in the 100-seat Saeima.

After nearly a month of negotiations, the parties announced Oct. 14 that they had agreed on who will control which ministry.

Not finding a place in the coalition is the center-left and pro-Russian party Harmony Centre (Saskaņas centrs), which just two weeks ago was in discussions to form either a three- or four-party coalition with the other players. Completely shut out was the center-right Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība), with which the ZRP had said it would not cooperate.]

Ex-president Valdis Zatlers had earlier pushed for a coalition between his party, Unity and Harmony Centre, which would have given him a strong 76-seat majority in the Saiema. However, opposition from voters, as well as debate over Harmony Centre’s willingness to acknowledge the Soviet occupation of Latvia, brought an end to the plan.

By Oct. 10 the three-party coalition of ZRP, Unity and the National Alliance announced they had agreed to form the new government and were continuing negotiation details. But then two days later ZRP announced it was taken a break from the talks, blaming Unity leader Solvita Āboltiņa and National Alliance leader Raivis Dzintars with making public statements that suggested their parties were not serious about promises they were making about reforming Latvian politics and government. Although it seemed the coalition might be in doubt, the parties nonetheless returned to the table.

The 40-year-old Dombrovskis, who first became prime minister in March 2009, would return to lead the coalition government, according to an announcement posted on the ZRP’s website.

ZRP will get to name ministers for foreign affairs; economics; education and science; interior affairs; and environmental protection and regional development. ZRP also will handle social integration affairs, a function that will move from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Education and Science. ZRP also expects to control the parliamentary speaker’s post, a job that Zatlers himself wants, according to press reports.

Unity will name the ministers for finance, welfare, defense and agriculture.

The National Alliance, meanwhile, will name the ministers for justice and culture, as well as the parliamentary secretary for health and the parliamentary secretary for environmental protection and regional development.

The minister for transportation will be nonpartisan, according to the announcement, but will be overseen by ZRP and Unity.

Given that social integration, protection of the Latvian language and reform of the country’s citizenship law continue to be hot-button issues, the coalition also announced plans for how it plans to deal with them.

In the Saeima, a subcommittee of the Education, Culture and Science Committee would be created to address patriotism. The parliament’s Citizenship Law Implementation Committee would be renamed the Social Unity Committee. Both bodies are to be led by representatives from the National Alliance, according to the ZRP announcement.