Relations within the ruling coalition, or rather — between the 'Progressives' and the 'Greens and Farmers', — could not be worse. This was once again manifested yesterday during the debates in the Saeima, where yet another initiative from the opposition faction to express no confidence in Minister of Communications Atis Švinka ('Progressives') was considered.
Dismiss for "wonderful" results
Representatives of the "Greens and Farmers" harshly criticized both the head of the Ministry of Communications and his party. The "Progressives" did not hold back either...
It should be noted that the opposition demanded the dismissal of Mr. Švinka for the "stunning" results of his work — the failure to implement the Rail Baltica project and the dire financial situation of the national airline airBaltic.
The head of the faction, Linda Liepiņa, in her speech recalled the latest scandal — it turned out that during the procurement for the implementation of Rail Baltica, a company won whose bid was 267 million euros higher than that of the second contender!
"What we see is a total result of chaos," the deputy denounced the minister and the coalition as a whole. "And this is no longer just negligence. This is prolonged and conscious irresponsibility. Again, no one is held accountable. The project executor's responsibility is zero, the Minister of Communications' is zero, the government's is zero, the Prime Minister's is zero. There is no accountability! No one is responsible for anything, and this continues."
"This specific last case – 267 million euros! This is not 267 euros, this is not even 267 thousand, this is 267 million. And I don’t know what is happening with us. When more than a million goes away, it seems to me that we stop and no longer understand the scale!" the deputy lamented.
"So help your minister with advice!"
The head of the faction of the Union of Greens and Farmers, Harijs Rokpelnis, took the opportunity to "remember everything" or rather — to recall a lot:
"We often hear from the co-chairs of the 'Progressives' – Ms. Lace and Mr. Šuvaev - smart teachings: how ministers from other parties should work, how other deputies in the Saeima should work, what the Prime Minister should do and how.
But have you forgotten about your colleague, the Minister of Communications? Well, give him advice. Or do you understand that leading a ministry is somewhat more complicated than going to a pride parade and waving flags – here you really have to work (loud applause in the hall)!"
"But, you know, what’s the problem? The 'Progressives' understood this. They want to be seen as martyrs who are not allowed to work – because their ministers are dismissed," Harijs Rokpelnis bluntly branded his government partners.
"Your policy is subservience to lobbyists"
Shortly after, the aforementioned head of the 'Progressives' faction, Andris Šuvaev, struck back: "So what is the policy of the ZZS? It is subservience to wealthy lobbyists – the timber lobby, the logging lobby, and now the fast credit lobby. As we can see, the Lembergs lobby has not disappeared either. And the reality is that you, ZZS, have no policy.
And with all due respect – I really enjoy working with a significant part of the deputies from your faction. But at the leadership level, this party has lost its existence. Your usual voters are going to Šlesers, you are not keeping up with the times, you do not know what to do with the policy promoted by the Minister of Climate and Energy, you are lost in foreign policy topics, you write press releases every day as soon as some new news headline appears, and so on.
We, at least, do not have such a problem. We know what we want to achieve, but you are trying to solve your problems at the expense of others. That is your economy. And if you have no substance, then it is obvious that the mechanism of defense is just an empty attack.
Everyone knows that for these three and a half years, the portfolio of the Minister of Communications is the most complex. And the 'Progressives', at least, were not afraid of responsibility. We were not afraid of openness. And despite the fact that we are a new party, we managed to protect the interests of society from all sorts of lobbyists swirling around this ministry. We managed to protect an important project from politicians who want to see Latvia maintaining ties with Russia. And despite the huge financial demands in the field of communications, at every budget negotiation, we thought about how best to balance the interests of the whole society, not just individual sectors. And this approach is completely foreign to the ZZS. You want to serve your sponsors and then mock others from this podium..."
The project has turned into a national disaster
It should be noted that opposition deputies quite reasonably criticized Minister Švinka for the "achievements" in his position as Minister of Communications. Some parliamentarians called for the implementation of Rail Baltica to be halted, as there is simply no money for this project, and moreover, the refusal to connect with Riga and the airport makes the project completely unattractive in the eyes of most Latvians...
"Rail Baltica is a classic example of how an unmanageable giant project turns into a national disaster and, perhaps, a good feeding trough and even a rat race... The Prime Minister also left this megaproject. How can it be that no one is managing it?" asked deputy Ramona Petraviča.
One way or another, the opposition's hopes for the 'Greens and Farmers' were not fulfilled — the majority of the ZZS did not "sink" the minister and voted against expressing no confidence in him. Only three deputies from the ZZS voted "for" — Augulis, Vucans, and Daudze. But this was not enough to "overthrow" Atis Švinka.
