On 7 May 1990 – only three days after the adoption of the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence – the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia appointed Ivars Godmanis as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The vote was a dramatic test for the new authorities: 131 deputies voted in favour, 46 against, and 6 abstained. Godmanis’s government had to take over the Soviet administrative apparatus, maintain the political course toward independence, and begin price, currency, land, and other reforms.

This decision launched the work of the transitional executive power after the vote of 4 May 1990. Godmanis’s cabinet had to govern in a situation where independence was not yet fully secured and Soviet structures were still present in Latvia.