Latvian parliament on Saturday approved the reshuffle of the minority government headed by Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, appointing seven new ministers.

After more than two hours of debate at an extraordinary meeting, the 100-member parliament passed the cabinet's reshuffle plan with 46 votes for, 34 against and 10 abstentions, avoiding a new round of political crisis for the time being.

As the result, the People's Party (TP) had two more ministers. Kalvitis' advisor Aigars Stokenbergs became the economics minister, and the portfolio of defense was handed to Atis Slakteris.

The Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) had one more minister as the head of the Higher Education Council Baiba Rivza was appointed as the education and science minister.

Latvia's First Party (LPP) took three new portfolios. Lawyer Guntars Grinvalds was appointed as the justice minister, Krisjanis Peters became the transport minister and former culture minister Karina Petersone, who represents the election bloc of the LPP and Latvia's Way, became minister for society integration.

Non-partisan Ina Gudele, who used to run the secretariat of the minister for e-government, was appointed as the minister for the e-government ministry.

After the vote the prime minister told the press he was pleased that the crisis in the government was solved.

The new ministers were "professionals and well-known in the public," Kalvitis said.

He said that the outcome of the vote confirmed that the majority of the lawmakers were for stability and wanted the current government to stay in office till the next parliament elections this fall.

The New Era party (Jl) on Thursday announced that it was withdrawing from the coalition government and all six cabinet ministers from the party submitted their resignations on Friday.

In addition, the office of the transport minister became vacant after the prime minister demanded resignation of Ainars Slesers from Latvia's First Party over his alleged involvement in the corruption scandal in election of the mayor of Jurmala city.

After the New Era party's quit, the ruling coalition now consists of three parties -- the People's Party, Latvia's First Party and the Union of Greens and Farmers, which together have 45 seats in the 100-member parliament.

Source: Xinhua