Latvian Vice-Premier and Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens has decided to renounce his ministerial portfolio and return to the parliament where he will be chairing the ruling center-right Unity faction, Latvia's public media website lsm.lv reported on Wednesday.
Unity plans to name a candidate for Latvia's next economic minister within a week, the party's representatives said.
Unity had to pick a new leader for its parliament faction because the faction's current chairwoman and former Unity leader Solvita Aboltina is about to lay down her lawmaker's mandate soon and take a diplomatic job at the Latvian Foreign Ministry.
Members of the Unity board and MPs representing the party met on Wednesday to discuss the Unity faction's leadership issue. Under the current coalition agreement, if a party intends to recall one of its ministers from the cabinet it has to inform its coalition partners and the prime minister at least a week before formally announcing the decision.
Aseradens was elected Unity chairman at the party's congress in August. Before becoming economics minister in Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis' government, he had been elected to the parliament on the Unity ticket. He had worked as parliamentary secretary at the Welfare Ministry and the Finance Ministry.