“You are a hole in a bagel!”: Saimā deputies criticized the minister with a heavy legacy for several hours 0 6

Shvinka inherited a legacy

It should be noted that the troubles for the head of the Ministry of Transport arose last week when — for the first time in many, many years! - deputies voted on the validity of the request to the Minister of Transport regarding the problems (read — chaos) in the organization of passenger transport in the regions.

And so yesterday at the plenary session, the opposition conducted a "flight review" for the Minister of Transport. First, the minister was given the opportunity to respond substantively to the deputies' request, after which the authors of the request began to criticize the minister as much as possible. Then the parliament considered a draft prepared again by the opposition regarding the instruction to the Ministry of Transport to develop an action plan in connection with changes in public transport routes. And for dessert, a draft resolution of the parliament expressing no confidence in the Minister of Transport was presented. But let’s go through everything in order.

The "celebrated" Aitis Shvinka ("Progressives") took a comfortable position: he claimed, "I am not guilty, I have only recently arrived here and just inherited a very bad legacy from my predecessors" — Shvinka "did not hesitate" to list all the previous heads of the department who, in Shvinka's opinion, created the mess and chaos in the public transport system.

From point A to point “nowhere”

To accurately plan the routes of regional public transport in Latvia, it is necessary to obtain all possible data available - passenger flows at each stop, mobile phone data, demographic data, unified cash data, as well as information provided by municipalities. "I would like to include school buses in this data," the minister stated. It is noteworthy that the minister somehow avoided specifics, namely — why it is impossible to get from point A to point B and when the situation will be corrected.

Independent deputy Viktoria Pleskane spoke about the cancellation of dozens of bus routes in Latgale, while commercial routes do not guarantee regularity — one time the bus goes, and another time it does not.

Andris Kulbergs (United List) noted that if there is no normal transport communication with the regions, then "there is no opportunity to live in the regions and, for example, work in cities or the capital, and bring money back. We will simply destroy these regions."

A hole instead of a bagel

After long debates, one of the authors of the initiative to express no confidence in the Minister of Transport, Linda Liepina, summarized: "And such a person works in Silin's government! I have a very simple question: can you read, Mr. Minister? Before you came to today's Saimā meeting, did you read what question you were supposed to give specific answers to the Saimā deputies? It was a specific request, the title of which is 'On the provision of public transport services by buses on regional routes.' So simple. Instead of showing that you know your industry better than deputy Viktoria Pleskane, you preferred to be a hole in a bagel that says absolutely nothing about the request. Absolutely nothing!"

However, this time it was not possible to remove the minister — 45 deputies voted for Shvinka's resignation, 47 deputies voted against, and one member of the parliament abstained. However, it is unlikely that Shvinka and his party colleagues were particularly pleased with the voting results, as it turned out that two deputies from the coalition party Union of Greens and Farmers — Uldis Augulis and Janis Vucans — also voted for the minister's resignation!

It is obvious that the "Progressives" will again be outraged by the actions of their partners in the Union of Greens and Farmers and will demand explanations regarding the gross violation of the coalition agreement.

Uldis Augulis, who, by the way, was himself a minister in Silin's government (headed the Ministry of Welfare) and previously led the Ministry of Transport, explained his position: “The reduction of public transport in the regions is much greater than the publicly mentioned 16%. In Vidzeme, it reaches 23.6%, in the Madona region — about 30%, and on the routes of Ogre and Aizkraukle, out of 530 trips, only 281 remain, which means a reduction of already 53%. This situation significantly affects the residents' ability to get to a doctor or other institutions, especially in the regions... The minister does not manage the industry, and meetings are scheduled soon with carriers and the union to assess the situation more accurately.”

Silin's government continues to work for now — at least until the adoption of the 2026 budget, that is, until December 4-5.