RIGA, Oct. 4 (Reuters) - Latvia's prime minister is seeking a cooperation deal with an opposition party backed by the country's large Russian-speaking minority in a bid to broaden his government's support base after a strong election win.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has already agreed with existing partners to try to form a new majority government that would have 63 seats in the 100-seat parliament.
He has said he plans to keep the country on an austerity path laid out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union in return for a 2008 bailout.
But in an effort to win support for additional budget cuts and after the minority Russian-speaking party Harmony Centre won second place in the Saturday vote, Dombrovskis said he had reached out to them too.
"We offer an opportunity to sign a cooperation agreement with Harmony Centre, to agree on cooperation in parliament, maybe, also delegating a minister," Dombrovskis told reporters after meeting Harmony Centre leaders.
Although Harmony Centre failed to win the election as it had hoped, the party did secure 29 parliamentary seats, giving it a degree of influence.
During the election campaign Harmony Centre called for revisions to the government’s deal with the IMF and EU, including using some of the bailout funds to stimulate the economy.
Nils Ushakovs, chairman of the board of Harmony Centre, told reporters his party was ready to support the new government "in all hard work".
"We will do that because both Unity and Harmony and other parties and all of Latvia’s people are in the same boat and this boat must get out of crisis," Ushakovs said.
Dombrovskis said he would now seek feedback from his coalition partners about cooperating with Harmony.
Despite 18 months of tough spending cuts and tax increases to meet the terms of a 7.5 billion euro ($10.27 billion) bailout, Dombrovskis, 39, led his Unity bloc to victory in Saturday’s vote with 33 seats in parliament.
His current partners — the Union of Greens and Farmers and the nationalist bloc Everything for Latvia/For Fatherland and Freedom — won 22 and eight seats, respectively.
The parties on Sunday agreed to work to form a new coalition, with a parliament vote of approval due on November 2.
