Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins announced his resignation on Thursday, engulfed by a scandal on taking private jets to official meetings, according to Politico.
His departure effectively eliminates him as a challenger to EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis, a party colleague from Latvia who is angling to return to the Commission after voters elect a new European Parliament in June.
Karins, who had previously announced his interest in becoming the next secretary-general of the NATO alliance, offered no explanation or additional comments to the media, AP News reports.
Last week, the prosecutor general’s office said it was launching criminal proceedings over the alleged waste of public money through the use of private aviation services by Karins and accompanying delegations during his time as a prime minister.
Karins, who was prime minister until last November, has been embarrassed by his use of state and EU funds to pay for charter flights during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Latvia’s corruption bureau KNAB last week opened an investigation into his personal frequent flyer program.
Even though it would rather be the State Chancellery that’s liable for any potential abuse — and not Karins himself — he’s now on the way out.
As prime minister, he allegedly spent €600,000 on charter flights from the state budget. On top of that, the EU wired another €557,000 to Riga for his trips, Latvian media reported back in November — the most of any EU country.
Without referring to the flight scandal, Karins shared his decision on Thursday with reporters after meeting with his successor Evika Siliņa, national broadcaster LSM reported. He will step down on April 10, when parliament will name his successor.
When the news first broke in November, Karins said he wouldn’t quit, instead raising his sights and expressing interest in becoming NATO’s next secretary-general. He also threw his hat in the ring to succeed Dombrovskis, the Commission’s executive vice-president with a broad remit covering trade and other economic issues.
Squeaky-clean technocrat Dombrovskis is leading the slate of the Unity party — which is a member of the conservative European People’s — for the European election, with Karins as his number two. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Karins will remain a candidate.