Riga, June 9 (LETA) - Latvian-minded forces have the upper hand in the Riga City Council by a few votes, the mayoral candidate of the National Alliance, incumbent vice mayor Edvards Ratnieks said in an interview with commercial TV3 television on Monday.

He stressed that he had not yet discussed possible coalition outlines with others, as the talks would start only today. Given that the Progressives have taken the lead in the negotiations, the National Alliance will see what will be offered and, if necessary, the National Alliance is ready to take the initiative.

Ratnieks stressed that national and security issues were very important in these elections.

"It is important that the Latvian bloc has a majority in the city council. It is important that the pro-Kremlin parties do not form a coalition in the city council. With a few votes, the Latvian-minded forces have the upper hand in the Riga City Council," the politician said.

In an interview with the Latvian public television, Ratnieks stressed that before the elections the National Alliance did not organize and did not engage in any negotiations about the potential new Riga City Council coalition, but if someone organized such negotiations behind the scenes, then what was agreed in those negotiations would no longer be valid.

The politician thinks that the work in the newly elected Riga City Council will certainly be interesting, and he has a slight feeling of déjà vu, recalling what happened after the extraordinary Riga City Council elections in 2020, when the National Alliance also sat at the negotiating table with the Progressives, as it is expected to do today.

As reported, negotiations on the formation of the next coalition will start today in Riga, the Progressives' mayoral candidate Viesturs Kleinbergs told LETA earlier.

Ainars Slesers' party Latvia First has won the largest number of votes in the municipal elections to the Riga City Council, but the parties Progressives and the National Alliance have also achieved very close results, preliminary election results compiled by the Central Election Commission show.

Counting data from all polling stations, the Latvia First won 18.17 percent of the votes, giving the list 13 out of 60 seats in the Riga City Council.

As many as 16.62 percent of voters supported the Progressives, giving them 11 seats, 14.2 percent voted for the National Alliance, giving it ten seats, and the New Unity, the party of current Riga Mayor Vilnis Kirsis, won 12.9 percent of voters' support. The New Unity will therefore win nine seats.

The joint list of Sovereign Power and the Union of New Latvians won 12.13 percent of the votes and won eight seats.

Two other political forces have entered the council - the Stability party, supported by 6.94 percent of voters, and the United List, supported by 6.29 percent of voters, which would allow them to win five and four seats respectively.

The other parties, including For Latvia's Development, Harmony, Honor to Serve Riga and the Union of Greens and Farmers, did not get into the Riga City Council.

In total, 60 deputies are to be elected to the Riga City Council.

The turnout in Riga in these elections reached 52.2 percent.