latvians.com — Weekly Digest
Week at a Glance
Ten consequential stories
5 – 11 October, 2026
Photo of the week: a wet October day on Miera iela, Rīga
© 2026 latvians.com
Forming the next government
Kulbergs has the mandate; coalition talks have yet to begin
President Edgars Rinkēvičs named Andris Kulbergs on October 6, saying most parties elected to the Saeima back him leading the talks.
Oct 3
Election: United List wins a record 41 seats
Oct 6
Rinkēvičs entrusts Kulbergs with forming a government
Oct 7
Latvia First offers to back a minority government
Nov 3
New Saeima's first sitting; formal nomination can follow
November
President hopes for a government by the national holiday
▴ You are here — week of 5–11 Oct
Kulbergs held no formal talks with other parties this week, and none are planned for the next. Partners, he says, will be those ready to deliver the changes voters chose: “Whoever signs up to that will be our partner.” Justice Minister Edvards Smiltēns is tipped to return as Saeima Speaker.
© 2026 latvians.com
Forming the next government
Three paths to a majority in the 100-seat Saeima
51
United List + National Alliance
Apvienotais saraksts + Nacionālā apvienība
The slimmest majority. The United List's Edgars Tavars says the arithmetic allows it, but prefers a broader coalition for unpopular decisions.
58
United List + National Alliance + New Unity
… + Jaunā Vienotība
The outgoing coalition partners, whom the United List says it will talk to first. New Unity wants a pledge that values issues, such as leaving the Istanbul Convention, stay off the agenda.
41 + 17
United List minority government, backed by Latvia First
Latvija pirmajā vietā
Ainārs Šlesers offers his 17 votes, budget included, without asking for ministers. Kulbergs has said he does not wish to work with Latvia First, yet the offer is discussed as one of the likelier models.
The United List rules out coalitions with Latvia First and the Progressives (Progresīvie, 10 seats). Also in the Saeima: Sovereign Power/New Latvians (Suverēnā vara/Apvienība Jaunlatvieši, 15 seats).
© 2026 latvians.com
Public money
Ministries told to hold off spending; parties face a funding cut
Finance Ministry · October 6
€8.9 billion
of consolidation in 2027–2030 would be needed for a zero-deficit budget by 2030, about €2.5 billion of it in 2028 alone.
Until the end of 2026, ministries are to sign no new contracts for goods, consultancy or research unless essential. Deals of €50,000 or more need personal approval from the Prime Minister, a minister or an authorised official.
Party funding
−15%
The United List wants parties' state funding cut by at least 15% from next year; co-chair Edgars Tavars calls it a condition for coalition partners. Parties are due about €6.2 million next year, with the United List at the €1.3 million cap.
Tavars also wants to loosen the rule that no spending category may take more than 60% of a party's state money. KNAB is firmly opposed.
© 2026 latvians.com
National airline
airBaltic plans 500 to 700 job cuts and trims its winter network
500–700
Positions at risk
across the Rīga, Vilnius and Tallinn bases under airBaltic's new business plan. Employment agencies in all three countries have been notified; the airline says flights are unaffected. The aviation union says it learned of the plan from the media.
From Rīga to
This winter
Bucharest, Sofia, Budapest, Oulu
No flights from end of October to end of March; back next summer
Innsbruck
Route ended entirely
Copenhagen, Oslo, Vienna, Munich
Fewer flights in January and February
Madeira, Prague
Schedule adjusted in some winter months
The airline cites aviation fuel, which rose sharply after conflict broke out in the Middle East and makes up a third of its costs. Seven other Rīga winter routes, among them Faro, Malta and Dubai, were dropped earlier.
© 2026 latvians.com
Security · Saeima, October 8
New limits for aggressor-state citizens and local councillors
Critical infrastructure
10%
Russian and Belarusian citizens may no longer hold a stake of 10% or more, or decisive influence, in Latvia's critical infrastructure.
The ban reaches Category D: processes such as food distribution, heat supply and medicines whose disruption would endanger security in wartime. By December 1 the Defence Ministry must identify any such entities and propose removing them from the category.
Travel ban
Russia, Belarus
Municipal councillors are now barred from travelling to either country, transit included. Defence committee chair Raimonds Bergmanis says councillors are part of the civil-defence system.
The ban already covered MPs and Saeima staff, officials with access to state secrets, soldiers, diplomats, and court and prosecution staff.
© 2026 latvians.com
Belarus border
Armed escorts push migrants; Operation Vilkatis extended to year-end
20+
migrants driven at the border by masked, armed escorts who threatened soldiers; the crossing was stopped
11,925
illegal crossings prevented so far this year, against 12,046 in all of 2025
1,244
attempts in September; at the June–July peak, more than 4,600 tried to cross
158
people-smuggling cases opened this year, against 115 people
Hours after the escort incident, masked intruders damaged an electricity box and stole two surveillance cameras before returning to Belarus. Border Guard chief Guntis Pujāts says they may be organised criminals rather than Belarusian state services. On October 6 the government extended Operation Vilkatis (Werewolf), under way on the eastern border since August 11, to December 31.
© 2026 latvians.com
Defence
First of 84 Hunter infantry fighting vehicles delivered
84
Vehicles due by 2029
Hunter (Mednieks), built on the ASCOD tracked platform; the first was handed over on October 7
30%+
Latvian industry's share
in the order placed with Spain's GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas, first for 42 vehicles, then doubled
€8 million
New plant in Valmiera
Patria Latvia laid its foundation stone the same day; it opens the way to assembling and maintaining the Hunters
Each vehicle has NATO level-four armour, an automatic cannon, anti-tank weapons and a machine gun, and carries six fully equipped soldiers. The name was chosen by soldiers of the Land Forces Mechanized Infantry Brigade, who will use them.
© 2026 latvians.com
Courts
Prison for aiding Russia's army; a symbols case goes back for retrial
Defendant
Outcome
The case
Polina Kamļova, pro-Kremlin activist from Rēzekne
6 years
Passed about €43, through an acquaintance in Belarus, toward a drone jammer for the Russian army. Riga City Court, October 7; can be appealed.
Sergejs Ņikitins, German-Russian dual citizen
7 years
Collected and passed money and goods to Russian military personnel from November 2023. Denies guilt, calling it humanitarian aid for civilians; not yet final.
Jeļena Kreile, pro-Kremlin activist
Retrial
Supreme Court annulled her three-year sentence for Russian and Soviet displays in her windows: the lower courts had not shown her messages glorified war crimes.
Financing an armed conflict carries up to ten years in prison under the Criminal Law. The State Security Service investigated the Kamļova case.
© 2026 latvians.com
Remembrance
Liepāja unveils a memorial at a Holocaust victims' mass grave
The memorial in the Jewish section of Līvas cemetery was unveiled on October 8, the anniversary of the Liepāja ghetto's liquidation. It honours ghetto prisoners deported from across Europe who died in the 1944 bombing of Liepāja.
The son of a German Jewish Holocaust survivor went looking for the grave in 2021. Cemetery worker and researcher Mareks Fūrmanis found it where a memorial stone had stood since the 1960s, long assumed to mark fallen soldiers.
“They were deported to Latvia so that they would die here and be forgotten.” — Iļja Ļenskis, director of the Jews in Latvia museum
4
Home countries
Those buried here were Jews from Austria, Germany, Czechia and Hungary, according to Ļenskis
© 2026 latvians.com
That's the week
Ten stories, one week, at a glance
This overview is a starting point — see the complete weekly digest for all stories and sources
© 2026 latvians.com