Aldis Gobzems

After Jānis Bordāns was unsuccessful in negotiating a governing coalition, President Raimonds Vējonis nominated Gobzems as Prime Minister of Latvia on November 26, 2018 and gave him two weeks to form a government.[2][3] A week later, he proposed a coalition that would consist of his Who Owns the State? party along with the New Conservative Party, the National Alliance, the Union of Greens and Farmers, and New Unity, despite the conservatives' objection to the greens and farmers' inclusion in government.[18] Fellow Who owns the state? party leader Artuss Kaimiņš also opposed the inclusion of the greens and farmers,[19] leading to a breakdown in talks later in the week. Gobzems then retracted his proposal for the coalition and instead called for a non-partisan cabinet of unnamed "best of the best" industry professionals,[20] a proposal that was nearly immediately rejected by the conservatives, the nationalists, and New Unity on the grounds that it could increase the influence of the Harmony party.[21] Although he had initially called on the president to hold early elections if his proposal were to be rejected, Gobzems instead offered a new four-party coalition that would not include the Union of Greens and Farmers.[22] The president revoked Gobzems' nomination on December 10, 2018.[4][5]

Following Gobzems' failure to form a government, Who Owns the State? insisted on his promotion to Minister of the Interior despite the refusal of likely prime minister nominee Krišjānis Kariņš to give him a position in the cabinet.[23] Although the party at first refused to consider a different candidate, they backed down from their demand on January 3, 2019 and instead nominated Sandis Ģirģens.[24] Kaimiņš then called on Kariņš to exclude Gobzems from the rest of the coalition building process, worsening a split between the two Who Owns the State? leaders which then lead to Gobzems' refusal to support the new Kariņš-led government as well as a vote of no confidence against Kaimiņš as party leader. Although the vote was split evenly, Kaimiņš survived the motion.[25] Relations between Gobzems and Kaimiņš reached their lowest point during the January 23 vote to confirm Kariņš' government, with the two using their speaking time during the discussion to insult and accuse one another of corruption.[26] Gobzems and four other Who Owns the State? deputies voted against the government despite their party's membership in the coalition, and two days later he testified against Kaimiņš to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau over an alleged bribe.[27][28] On February 4, Who Owns the State? members voted to expel Gobzems from the party, with Kaimiņš citing damage to the party's image as the main reason and Gobzems promising to found a new party.[6] Gobzems was subsequently removed from KPV LV's parliamentary group on February 6, 2019.[29]

After being ejected from Who Owns the State?, Gobzems became one of two independent members of Saeima along with Jūlija Stepaņenko who left the Harmony party on the first day of the parliamentary session.[30] On March 12, 2019 he reiterated his promise to form a new party, predicting that the requisite five members could easily be drawn from the other parties and that by the end of the year his new party would have more seats in parliament that New Unity.[31] On April 3, he joined Stepaņenko along with three rebel members of his former party and opposition parties Harmony and Union of Greens and Farmers in voting against the 2019 state budget.[32] On April 11, he led a vote of no confidence against prime minister Krisjānis Kariņš that failed 58 to 33.[33]

On November 20, 2018 it was announced the Latvian Constitution Protection Bureau announced that Gobzems would have to go through additional steps in the vetting process before receiving a security clearance required to access state secrets.[34] This became problematic when he was nominated by the president to form a government a week later, as potential coalition partners expressed skepticism over a potential head of government without access to sensitive information.[35] On April 18, 2019, Gobzems was invited by the Constitution Protection Bureau for an interview regarding the clearance process, after which he expressed doubt that he would be granted access and promised to appeal such a decision. On April 30, he was officially denied access to state secrets by the bureau.[36]