One of the ruling factions issued an angry statement, "forgetting" what its deputies had done just minutes earlier!
As previously reported, the Saeima overwhelmingly supported in the first reading, that is, the transfer to the parliamentary committee, the amendments of the National Alliance and the United List, which aim to eliminate the Russian language in public media. And now the 'Progressives' party has issued an indignant statement regarding this matter.
"An agreement was reached in the coalition to jointly promote the amendments prepared by the Council for Public Electronic Media (SEPLP) concerning the content of public media in foreign languages, in order to comply with the ruling issued by the Constitutional Court on March 30.
The amendments prepared by SEPLP provide for changes to the Law on Public Electronic Media and their Management, establishing that they have the option, rather than the obligation, to create content in foreign languages, including the languages of national minorities.
Instead, 'New Unity' decided to propose at the Saeima meeting on April 30 the amendments initiated by deputy Edward Smiltenis together with the opposition United List and the National Alliance, although a prior agreement had been reached that it would be inappropriate to promote other conceptual proposals besides those prepared by the public media regulator — SEPLP.
"We agreed that SEPLP would meet with the factions to discuss this issue. It is unclear why 'New Unity' broke its word and decided to promote proposals that do not align with SEPLP's vision together with the opposition," stated the chairman of the parliamentary faction of the 'Progressives' party, Andris Šuvajevs.
The outrage is quite understandable, but it seems either it is aimed at an uninformed public that does not follow the political process, or Šuvajevs and Co. experienced some sort of eclipse — perhaps they were struck by retrograde Mercury. After all, they issued their statement right after they THEMSELVES VOTED FOR THIS LANGUAGE BILL! Yes, the deputies from the 'Progressives' faction initially unanimously supported including this bill on the agenda, and then pressed the 'for' button during the vote on transferring the bill to the Saeima committee. Moreover, Andris Šuvajevs himself also pressed the 'for' button!
As one veteran of Latvian politics noted, he would prohibit deputies from making politically sensitive decisions before elections.
