Riga, June 4 (LETA) - Latvia President Edgars Rinkevics refrained from commenting on whether changes could take place in the coalition after the local elections, as this is not a question for the president, but for politicians and coalition partners, the president said after his meeting with Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity).

He stressed that it was up to the coalition to assess or not to assess the results of the municipal elections.

According to Rinkevics, the country has many important things to do, the first and foremost of which is the establishment of the country's budget for next year, not only in the context of all the needs related to the country's development, social, health, education issues, but also in the context of the forthcoming NATO summit in The Hague.

The president underlined the government decision in principle to allocate 5 percent of the gross domestic product to defense and security. In his view, it is one thing to decide to increase defense spending, but another to decide how to achieve it. Rinkevics stressed that these are difficult decisions.

The president said that after the local elections there would be different types of discussions, but he believed that the focus at national level should be on increasing defense spending, tackling demographic issues and establishing next year's national budget.

"We know very well that there are many things to be addressed. Whether they can be addressed in one format or another is a question that will come up next week after the results of the local elections are known," Rinkevics said.

The municipal elections will take place this weekend, but citizens can also cast their votes in advance ballots throughout the week.