Will you take them to the Baltic Sea and keep them there?! 0 7

At one of the previous plenary sessions, it was decided to postpone for a week the consideration of the popular initiative on depriving the citizenship of Latvia and expelling disloyal residents from the country. And today at the plenary session, the deputies were proposed to support the decision of the Saeima's commission on mandates, ethics, and statements to forward this provocative initiative for further consideration by the commissions on defense and internal affairs. This sparked a discussion. Some opposition deputies were perplexed: why should this strange initiative be given the green light at all?

"Why should we, as the Saeima, support the further advancement of this absurd initiative?! Colleagues, have you even opened the document and read it? It simply states a declarative slogan — we demand legislative amendments to establish the expulsion of individuals disloyal to the Latvian state from Latvia and the deprivation of citizenship of the Republic of Latvia. What exactly do you intend to change directly? Will you take away citizenship? Someone will decide that a person is disloyal, and you will deprive them of their only Latvian citizenship. Where will you expel them to? Will you take them by boat to the Baltic Sea and keep them there? So why move forward? Because it sounds good? Because 10,000 people visited the portal over three years and thought, 'Yes, I’ll read it. Oh, that sounds good!' We can read, we can open documents, we can hear what the responsible authorities say in the commission, and I hope we can make a decision on whether this initiative moves forward or not. Therefore, I believe this is an absurd initiative. We should not be engaging in such absurd things."

"Well, here’s the problem. According to the Constitution, a citizen of Latvia cannot be expelled from their country. Period! And citizenship cannot be revoked if it results in a person becoming stateless. This is restricted not only by our laws but also by international conventions that Latvia has voluntarily joined. Colleagues, do we really... Does anyone among you want to declare war on the Constitution? Do we want to withdraw from international conventions like North Korea?"

In support of further consideration of the initiative, a representative of the ruling coalition stated: "Dear colleagues! First of all, we must remember that every initiative that receives 10,000 signatures goes to the commission on mandates, ethics, and statements. That’s one thing.

Another thing. Let’s remember when this initiative emerged! This initiative arose with the beginning of the war in Ukraine in May 2022, when disloyal individuals to Latvia gathered at monuments glorifying the Soviet totalitarian regime... directed, hostile people expressed their hostile views towards Latvia, the Ukrainian people, and so on without hesitation in front of cameras. That’s why such an initiative arose. I also personally believe that individuals who hate Latvia, Latvians, and our country should find... a way to leave our country. And the initiative deserves consideration in the Saeima. I was also surprised by the previous speakers that they are so upset. Apparently, the Soviet mentality is at play."

In any case, the advancement of this initiative, that is, its referral to the commission, was supported by an effective constitutional majority — 67 deputies pressed the "for" button.