New Latvian PM Vows Reforms as Parliament Backs his Coalition

Latvia's new prime minister vowed to push ahead with social reforms on Thursday as his center-right coalition won a vote of confidence in parliament.

Former development minister Maris Kucinskis, 54, succeeded as premier Laimdota Straujumaafter, who resigned in December after two years following a power wrangle inside her party. Kucinski will lead the same three-party coalition.

Lawmakers voted 60 in favor with 32 against in the 100-seat parliament, giving the new government a comfortable majority.

Speaking to parliament ahead of the vote, Kucinskis vowed to press ahead with "reforms in education, science and healthcare, as well as improving the demographic situation".

A 2011 survey revealed the Latvian population shrank from 2.2 million in 2000 to just 2.0 million -- plunging 13 percent in little more than a decade. Around a quarter of the population is ethnic Russian.

The decline accelerated as EU labor markets opened up to Latvians following the country's 2004 entry into the bloc.

An economy ministry study has found that the population could drop further to 1.6 million by 2030 if nothing is done to tackle the exodus.

"The new prime minister seems to have more ambition than his predecessor, which leads us to hope that some long-postponed reforms will now gain momentum," political analyst Iveta Kazoka of the Providus center for public policy told AFP.

Opposition MPs were less optimistic.

"This is the same old coalition that discredited itself before," said Valerijs Agesins, a member of the left-leaning Harmony party popular with the Russian minority.

Under Moscow's thumb in Soviet times, Latvia and fellow Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania are urging NATO to reinforce its presence in the region amid jitters over Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.

A Rand Corporation threat assessment published last week found that it would take just 60 hours for Russia to take over Estonia and Latvia.