Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs’s centre-right party alliance, United List, secured a landslide victory in the country’s latest parliamentary elections held on 3 October 2026 with over 35% of the vote, LSM reported. The party’s overwhelming win was a big surprise in light of polls ahead of the elections. Kulbergs is an outspoken businessman who has made a successful career in car trade, and he has no longterm background in politics. Despite his current post as premier, he is not a member of any political party.
In the newly elected parliament, United List is projected to secure as many as 42 of the 100 seats, more than tripling its previous representation. The party’s electoral victory is historically large in Latvian politics, LETA reports. It is highly likely that the next government will be a centre-right coalition led by United List, LSM reports. Its likely junior partners in the new government are two of its current coalition allies: the right-wing nationalist National Alliance and Latvia’s former dominant party, centre-right New Unity.
The National Alliance finished fourth in the election with approximately 9% of the vote and is expected to secure 10 seats in parliament. New Unity placed sixth with just over 6% of the vote; The party’s seat count will drop sharply from the current 25 to just 7. The fourth partner in the incumbent governing coalition, the regionalist agrarian Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS), received only 4.4% of the vote. Consequently, it failed to clear the five-percent electoral threshold, excluding the party entirely from parliament.
The social-democratic opposition party, The Progressives, finished fifth with 7.8% of the vote, and its nine representatives are likely to remain in opposition. Also likely to remain in opposition are the election runner-up, the “Trumpist” Latvia First, which is led by oligarch Ainars Šlesers, and the third-place finisher, openly pro-Russian Sovereign Power. Latvia First secured around 13% of the vote and doubled its seat count to 17. Sovereign Power entered parliament with just under 12% of the vote, winning 15 seats.
United List was by far the most popular party everywhere across Latvia except for the Russian-majority east, where Latvia First was clearly the most popular choice. Alongside Sovereign Power, Latvia First is thus currently one of Latvia’s major so-called “Russian parties.” Stability, the most significant party representing the Russian-speaking minority in the previous parliamentary elections, now received only about 2% of the vote nationwide, while the social-democratic Harmony party, which had previously garnered the majority of Russian-speaking votes, secured less than 1%.
Excluding United List’s current coalition partner, ZZS, the other small parties and electoral lists that failed to enter parliament received a combined total of little over 10% of the vote. The most successful of these minor political groups was the populist protest party, We Will Change the Rules (MMN), led by theatre director and actor Alvis Hermanis, which obtained approximately 3.4% of the vote. Other small parties received 2% or less. Parties that receive at least 2% of the total vote are entitled to public funding.