Save the convention... Desperate deputies decided to mock the authors of the bill 0 18

As is known, yesterday until late in the evening, heated debates continued in the Saeima regarding the bill on exiting the Istanbul Convention. All attempts by deputies from 'New Unity' and the 'Progressives' party to prevent the virtually inevitable - the adoption of the bill in the first reading - failed. The document was supported in the first reading; moreover, the majority of parliamentarians voted to grant the document 'urgent' status. This means that at the next plenary session on October 30, the bill must be adopted finally! The submission of amendments ends today.

In desperation, deputies from 'New Unity' bombarded the relevant committee - on foreign affairs - with essentially mocking amendments. For instance, deputy from 'New Unity' Agnese Krasta proposed to exclude from the bill... Article 1, which precisely discusses the exit (denunciation) from the Istanbul Convention. The head of the 'New Unity' faction, Edmunds Jurēvics, called to postpone the adoption of the bill until a conclusion is received from the special services regarding whether there is a 'hand of Moscow' behind this legislative initiative to exit the convention, that is, Russia.

Another deputy from 'New Unity', Irma Kalniņa, suggests recording that Latvia will submit a statement to exit the convention only after the decision to exit the convention is made by... the Ukrainian parliament!

The parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Artem Urshulsky, proposed that Latvia does not submit a notification to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe about exiting the convention until a conclusion is received from the Cabinet of Ministers on how exiting the convention may affect the legal system of the state, as well as the budgets of the state and municipalities! At the same time, the government is proposed to be given... 6 months to prepare such a conclusion!

Since in the Saeima's foreign affairs committee, deputies from 'New Unity' and the 'Progressives' party are in the minority, it is obvious that all these proposals will be rejected. And on October 30, the Saeima will adopt the bill in the final reading. The main intrigue is whether the president will proclaim the law or return it to the Saeima for revision under some pretext.