RIGA, Jan 23 (LETA) - Riga City Council member Lauris Erenpreiss has decided to leave the Unity party and resign from the New Unity faction in the City Council, the politician confirmed to LETA.

He is leaving the faction today, a day after the 2025 budget was approved by the City Council. However, Erenpreiss said that the decision was unrelated to the adoption of the budget.

"There are other issues that made me do it. The critical mass has been reached," the councilman commented.

He revealed that various topics were divided among city council members from the party, on which each of them gathered information and made proposals. "I did not get a response to my topic from my colleagues and I lost motivation," admitted Erenpreiss, who collected and presented proposals and organized working groups on improving access to educational institutions.

The councilman promises to continue supporting "[Vilnis] Kirsis as mayor" and to work "within reason", supporting the current coalition partners.

He intends to run in the upcoming municipal elections and is currently assessing offers from other political organizations to join their list.

Olafs Pulks, head of the New Unity faction of the Riga City Council, told LETA that Erenpreiss informed him of his decision late yesterday evening after the Riga City Council meeting.

The main reason for his decision was that his idea to improve the infrastructure near educational institutions had not been supported and had not been achieved.

Pulks pointed out that Riga will never be ready and that there is a lot of work to be done in this area as well. The simplest things are already being done near schools, for example by introducing traffic calming measures or other options.

However, it is currently not possible to sort out all the infrastructure in a short time. There are many reasons for this, such as the need for a project for each site, the need for procurement, and the need to buy up private land in many places, explained Pulks.

There are many educational institutions in Riga and the situation at each of them is different. One is in a courtyard, another on a main street, another next to a forest.

In general, Pulks said he regretted that Erenpreiss had taken this decision, because they had worked together in the previous term of the city council in the opposition.

It has been rumored behind the scenes that Erenpreiss could join the National Alliance.