Hot Political Season: The Situation in the Latvian Saeima and Around It Heats Up 0 9

With only a few months left until the elections, the official election campaign kicks off in early June, and from that moment on, the parliamentary podium gains special value — it allows reminding voters of oneself for free, without fearing accusations of "hidden" election campaigning.

A Test of Strength

But before discussing what awaits politicians and us during the spring session, let’s summarize the main results of the parliament's work during the winter session. The session that has already gone down in history was also filled with drama and passed laws.

Thus, the opposition, taking advantage of the weakness of the ruling coalition, tested the government’s resilience and discipline several times — there were attempts to dismiss Prime Minister Evika Silina, which would mean the resignation of the entire government, as well as the Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development Raimonds Čudars, the Minister of Communications Atis Švinka, and the Minister of Defense Andris Sprūds.

At the same time, it cannot be said that the opposition "fabricated a reason" and that there were no grounds for the resignations. For instance, Minister of Communications Atis Švinka was unable to bring order to the implementation of the Rail Baltica project, and the sources of funding for the project and the outlines of the project itself remain unclear. It is worth reminding that Silina's government is one of the most unpopular in recent history, with almost all ministers having a negative popularity rating...

However, it was evident that the opposition's attempts to remove certain ministers were doomed to fail — the ruling party was not ready to dismantle its own government, especially with elections just around the corner.

The Language Can Endure It All

Instead, the ruling party eagerly supported the language initiatives of part of the right-wing opposition (represented by the National Alliance and the United List). Ultimately, amendments to the Education Law were approved, which prohibit teachers and each other from using any language other than the state language within educational institutions and in communication with students.

However, of course, not all initiatives from the National Alliance received the green light from the ruling party — some proposals were either rejected or sent to committees to... be buried there. For now, proposals for a complete ban on economic relations with Russia and Belarus, for imposing a huge tax on goods imported into Latvia from Russia and Belarus, and for dismantling the railway towards the Russian Federation have not yet been supported...

The deputies did not dare to send to the Saeima committees and continue working on the popular initiative to strip citizenship from and deport disloyal residents from the country — such an initiative contradicted both the Constitution and Latvia's international obligations...

Trump Does Well Even Without the Prize

The winter session was also marked by the consideration of dozens of statements (declarations). A particular resonance was caused by a draft declaration of the Saeima prepared by the opposition faction. In this draft, parliamentarians were to express support for awarding Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize.

This draft had the effect of a "nuclear bomb" — especially after deputies from the coalition party Union of Greens and Farmers "threatened" to support the document.

The ruling party decided to urgently prepare an alternative version of the declaration. When it was prepared, it turned out that the same "green farmers" were not ready to sign it in that form. The president was forced to intervene — his office staff urgently drafted a third version of the declaration, which contained many flattering words about the USA as Latvia's strategic ally, but not a word about the Nobel Prize for Trump. As a result, the majority of the Saeima voted for such a declaration. The issue was closed...

When There Is No Agreement Among Friends

There is no doubt that during the spring session, the opposition will continue to tickle the nerves of the ruling party with various declarations and statements, including in the field of foreign policy. Given the readiness of the "green farmers" to continue playing the role of rebels within the coalition, the opposition always has the opportunity to test the resilience of Silina's government.

The first such test is expected on April 14, when the Saeima Budget and Finance Committee will make its third attempt to consider the government's proposal to provide the national airline airBaltic with a loan of 30 million.

As is known, before the Easter holidays, deputies from the Union of Greens and Farmers blocked the allocation of such a loan. Let's see how it goes this time...

What People Are Talking About in Stores

Later this month, the Saeima will consider in its final reading amendments to the Consumer Rights Protection Law. Recall that at the initiative of deputies from the National Alliance, amendments were approved during the second reading of the bill that effectively prohibited serving customers in stores and generally in the service sector in Russian.

The Ministry of Justice proposed a compromise amendment that, on the one hand, prohibits requiring sellers to speak Russian, but, on the other hand, does not prevent customers from communicating with the seller or another service worker in foreign languages — with mutual consent.

Nationalists Against Islamists

In the coming weeks, the parliament will begin discussing numerous proposals in the final (third) reading of the new Immigration Law.

Deputies from the National Alliance want to legally restrict the entry of citizens from third countries into the country. Thus, the amendment by Janis Dombrovskis stipulates that the Cabinet of Ministers must suspend the issuance of new residence permits and long-term visas to citizens of third countries if the number of citizens from third countries exceeds 5% of the number of Latvian citizens residing in the country. The deputies will also attempt to limit the issuance of visas and residence permits to individuals from certain countries — mainly Islamic ones.

The hot spring session will end before Ligo... And then the deputies will gather for the last autumn session in the history of the 14th convocation of parliament.

Said — Done

During the winter session, deputies demonstrated that if there is, as is now commonly said, political will, then certain laws can be adopted not just in a matter of days, but in a matter of hours! Thus, during one parliamentary session, deputies supported the adoption of an amendment stating that in the upcoming Saeima elections, the counting of votes will be done manually.

Also, in one day, a special law was adopted to reduce the excise tax on diesel fuel for the period from April 1 of this year to June 30 of this year.