After Kristjanis Karins resigned as the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to the "airplane scandal" and left the ranks of the Unity party, he refused to give interviews. Only now - apparently in the run-up to the elections - has he decided to say everything that has been on his mind! In an interview with diena.lv, he criticized the now former Prime Minister Siliny for turning her back on him during the "airplane scandal" and, especially, for very serious tactical mistakes that led to her own government falling apart. But what particularly concerns Karins is the current leaders' inability to act competently in foreign policy. "They look at us as those who are starting to fall out of international circulation. We are simply starting to disappear, and that is not good. For example, Finland has significantly raised its profile, and this is related to Alexander Stubb becoming their president, and their president plays a role that our president does not have. ...In Finland, there is now a very capable president with a relatively large role in foreign policy, and Mr. Stubb covers the entire region well. We as Latvians can be grateful and relatively happy that at least some regional leader is strong, but neither in Latvia, nor in Lithuania, nor in Estonia, in my opinion, is there anything like that, and here we are. This means that we are not helping to steer the waters in the right direction, but are simply drifting along with the current. And that is potentially very dangerous. There are politicians and countries that are involved in various negotiations and decisions because they are simply part of this discourse, part of the process. And we are not allowed into that policy-making process. Yes, we are one of 27 votes at the European Council table, and our vote is the same as any other European country. But we no longer shape the content that is presented for decision-making at the European Council table," Karins said, among other things. Karins also criticized the current Prime Minister Kulbergs: "Mr. Kulbergs has earned his political capital by criticizing my former party, including me. Fine, he criticizes me, I don’t speak very well of him, but what worries me more is that all his politics are based on the idea that everyone else is to blame and he knows better than anyone else. Before I became Prime Minister, I also criticized the Kuchinskis government, but I know what the consequences are when taking on the reins of responsibility, that it is not so easy to solve everything. Kulbergs simplistically says that he will put everything in order, but that does not work either in the world or in our politics. Therefore, he is creating expectations in a populist manner that are unattainable, and the result is only one — if he ultimately becomes Prime Minister after the elections, I would be surprised if there was not deep disappointment in society and in him as well. But this is characteristic of us – we place unrealistic hopes, and then we have unrealistic disappointment, while we just need to move forward smoothly. In a lengthy interview, the former Prime Minister also commented on the situation in his former party. "What I, unfortunately, see, because this is no longer unique anywhere in the Western world – we are engulfed by a wave of populism, and I define populism as politicians offering very simplified solutions to very complex problems. This is very noticeable in the USA, as all the processes are happening there now, we see it in Europe — in Germany this movement is very strong, in France we will see who will succeed Macron. And in Latvia, I think the same — Unity, which in my eyes is that very party that was formed by the merger of Jaunais Laiks, meaning since 2002, and perhaps it has exhausted itself or is exhausting itself at this moment. Today, to be honest, I unfortunately cannot say at all what this force represents or what it wants, because the party at some point lost its direction, and I think the ratings reflect that," concluded the former Prime Minister in diena.lv, referring to the lack of a team in "New Unity."