Riga - Under pressure to quit, Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said he will remain in office until December 5 to complete the Russian-Latvian border treaty and complete the revamp of regional districts. "It's hard for this government to earn back the trust, this is why the best one can do is form a new government," Kalvitis said.
The government will also ask lawmakers to approve replacements for three ministers who have quit the cabinet in the last month, the newspaper Diena reported on Thursday.
Elected a year ago, the centre-right government in this small Baltic EU member has been under mounting pressure to step down as thousands of protesters demanded its resignation.
Latvian President Valdis Zatlers earlier this week called on the government to resign following the Thursday's parliamentary vote on the annual budget.
A move to create the new government is unlikely to earn back the public trust nor would it include opposition parties, political observers say.
"The new government will be a similar government to the one that exists," political science professor at the University of Latvia Nils Muiznieks told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Yielding to the public pressure, the government has already reversed its decision to fire the anti-corruption chief Aleksejs Loskutovs, deciding to reprimand him instead. Two ministers left the government on October 19 over the government's push to fire Loskutovs. Another minister resigned last week.
The coalition includes the People's Party, the Union of Greens and Farmers, Latvia's First Party and the party For Fatherland and Freedom. It has 56 seats in the 100-seat unicameral parliament.
