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The Harmony board decided at a meeting last Friday to task the party's next board that will be elected at an upcoming party congress to reassess in two weeks Harmony's partnership with GKR in the Riga coalition. 

Janis Urbanovics, chairman of the Harmony group in Saeima, said that under the leadership of new Riga mayor Olegs Burovs (GKR) the city council has started departing from the program on which the two parties ran in the municipal elections and the promises given to the voters. Harmony therefore should consider leaving the coalition with GKR, which in Harmony's opinion is distancing itself from its electorate. 

Harmony feels that GKR has been departing from its main election promise - "to help those most in need of support - pensioners and families with children". 

The decision of the Harmony board, however, will depend on its makeup, as the party is due to hold a congress soon to elect its new leadership. 

Since Harmony's previous board chairman and former Riga mayor Nils Usakovs is no longer running for the post of the party's chairman, Urbanovics is now the front-runner, most like to be elected to the position he already held in the past.

Urbanovics admits that Harmony is faced with serious problems and that they might not be solvable. However, the veteran politician feels moral responsibility for the situation in which Harmony has found itself and therefore considers running in the elections to be his duty.