| Latvia's government resigned Thursday after lawmakers refused to pass the 2005 budget that had been proposed by Prime Minister Indulis Emsis. The parliament voted 53-39 against the budget, while five lawmakers abstained Emsis, whose Greens and Farmers Union party has been in power in a coalition with Latvia's First Party and the left-wing People's Harmony Party, were in favor of the budget, along with the Latvian Socialist Party. But lawmakers and members of the Ruling People's Party and right-wing opposition parties New Time and Fatherland and Freedom, along with For Human Rights in a United Latvia, rejected the proposal. Emsis, in Rome for the signing of the European Union Constitution, had no immediate comment. The ruling coalition had just 47 seats in the 100-seat parliament. It came into power in March. It was the 10th government for the Baltic state of 2.3 million since it regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse. |