Latvian Political Monitor

@ivchix @AndrisKulbergs No, I got those 'trophies' even earlier. I was around Jūrkalne on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday I joined the Kurzeme campaign bus - we are visiting several companies. P.S. There was no minister on the bus, nor even the prime minister.

Day No. 52 in the prime minister's chair – Zemgale farmers 🇱🇻. I couldn't post this video sooner because, unfortunately, someone stepped on the leg of our family's youngest member and broke it ☹️. This time the post will be longer because I saw and heard a LOT. Entrepreneurs, farmers, family farms, producers, municipalities, and people who create jobs and Latvia's economy every day. And again one conclusion repeated almost everywhere: Latvia does not lack enterprising people. Too often we are hindered by bureaucracy, labour shortages, and rules that force entrepreneurs to fight not for development but against the state. 🌱 ASNS pea protein factory in Staļģene. This is a very important project for Latvian agriculture. From one 🇱🇻-grown yellow pea, several high-value products can be created – protein isolate, other protein products, starch, and fibre. This is exactly what we need: not simply exporting peas, grains, or other raw materials, but processing them right here in Latvia and exporting a product with much greater added value. 💶 The project has invested 132 million euros: ➖️ €53.6 million – @AltumLV loan under the Large Investment Loan Programme; ➖️ €40 million financing from @RietumuDelfin bank. ♻️ Moreover, it is planned to use practically the entire pea. Even process water rich in organic substances will be used for biogas production, and the biogas for pea drying. 👷 Approximately 100 new jobs are planned. ASNS is an excellent example of how traditional agriculture combines with technology, science, and global food market trends. We need such factories all over Latvia! 🏭 Production is planned to start in the first quarter of 2027. But there is a fly in the ointment – ALTUM and ministry bureaucracy nearly killed the project and delayed its opening by at least 2–3 years. This is a serious public administration ailment – so that no one is responsible for decisions, such a mountain of papers, requirements, and approvals is generated that it is almost impossible to lift in normal business. This must be changed urgently. 🌾 LPKS LATRAPS – Eleja. @LATRAPS unites more than 1,220 members and is the largest Latvian farmers' cooperative and one of the most significant in the Baltics. 🇱🇻 It is a 100% Latvian farmer-owned company. The cooperative provides: ➖️ grain acceptance; ➖️ initial processing; ➖️ storage; ➖️ logistics; ➖️ sales to more than 30 countries worldwide. In my opinion, LATRAPS has all the potential to enter the 🇱🇹 Lithuanian and 🇪🇪 Estonian markets much more aggressively. Otherwise, Estonians and Lithuanians come to us, but we go to them too rarely. 🌾 Grain delivery point. The visit coincided with the peak of harvest. Weather has helped farmers this time – grain moisture in places is only around 14%, so it is possible to do without additional drying. 🚜 Farm “Paugurīši”. Again I saw a beautiful model of Latvian agriculture – a father and son running the farm together. Very similar to the Riekstiņi and Amatnieki farms met in Latgale: the father has enormous practical experience, the son has modern agronomist knowledge and a fresh perspective. I saw the harvest process and we talked about the real problems of farmers. ⚠️ One of them – the European Commission's emergency funding distribution to mitigate the consequences of the Middle East crisis. Latvia has been granted one of the lowest support levels in Europe. 🇱🇻 Latvian farmers are allocated only about €10/ha, while in the so-called “old” 🇪🇺 countries support reaches €15–30/ha. I need to see and hear this myself so that at the October and December European Council meetings I can speak not theoretically but with concrete examples from Latvian countryside. 🌾 Jura Lazdiņš's farm “Lazdiņi”. Juris Lazdiņš is the chairman of the board of the association “Zemnieku saeima”, and the conversation was very specific. 💸 Mineral fertilizer prices have increased by 30–60% compared to last year. One of the significant reasons is the 🇪🇺 CBAM – the carbon border adjustment mechanism, which also affects imported mineral fertilizers. Additional costs already reach up to €157/t. At the same time: ➖️ grain prices on exchanges remain low; ➖️ fertilizers are becoming more expensive; ➖️ fuel is rising; ➖️ new levies are coming; ➖️ environmental requirements are growing; ➖️ fertilisation is being restricted. Meanwhile, farmers outside the 🇪🇺 use cheaper raw materials, fuel, and fertilisers. If we continue to unilaterally raise European farmers' production costs, we will squeeze our own agriculture out of the market. Under this scenario, several base crops in Latvia will simply no longer be profitable to grow. ❗Main farmer problems I take with me to work: ➖️ we must fight for fairer payments for Latvian farmers in the 🇪🇺; ➖️ CBAM's impact on mineral fertilisers must not make 🇪🇺 farmers uncompetitive; ➖️ part-time work regulations and minimum social contributions greatly hinder seasonal work; ➖️ the simplified tax regime for seasonal field workers must be expanded – legal work must be simpler, not more complicated. The Cabinet issue is stuck – it will have to be moved; ➖️ in public food procurement, we must not reach a situation where the only criterion is the lowest price and the local producer is squeezed out; ➖️ the planned increase in railway freight tariffs by about 25% threatens to shift even more grain transport to roads; ➖️ the requirement for diesel fuel to contain at least 6.5% biodiesel or advanced biofuel also in winter increases costs and raises concerns about agricultural machinery. Regional visits continue @Apvienotais_

@Driafre Some kind of mix of a Cinderella ball and Putin's inauguration has come out…

@Vinkele @jtaurens @Rajevskis Doubt it. The main question could be - which is the lesser evil.

It seems it's come to the point that the state should create something like a financial inquisition and then go through all these strange-named NGOs' strange 'projects.' I would even be ready to work in such a thing. https://t.co/lDOGSJJ6EM

Hello, Kurzeme! To listen to you, I have visited Liepāja, Durbe, Nīca, Aizpute, Pāvilosta over the last day. I met with entrepreneurs, residents, people from the Liepāja Blind Society, and even participants of the Aizpute secondary school 55th reunion. https://t.co/FTYp1nXQUz

@instant_mk @VisockisJuris @Apvienotais_ Very well and long discussed. I am chairing the meeting, and everyone should be given the opportunity to speak. But when speaking, there must be discipline, because the time is 2 hours, in which conclusions, tasks, and next dates must be set. Discipline must be maintained and one must focus on expressing the thought and message.

Leitān, I think you have already very well proven and confirmed that you are already ready and mature to professionally move to a higher journalism league, and we would all appreciate your work in the magazine Private Life. You are good at it.

@instant_mk @VisockisJuris @Apvienotais_ Forgive me, but it was precisely her whom I allowed to speak longer than everyone else, precisely because she represents an umbrella NGO organization.

Today at Grīziņkalns park there are city festivities and parties have set up campaigning tents at the entrances. According to the rules, you are not allowed to enter the territory with campaign materials and address people during the event. The only ones who consistently violated this, of course, were the representatives of Mēs mainām noteikumus...

@aiga_balode This time the talk was specifically about remote work, but I completely agree with you - also in in-person work at least 30% of civil servants are completely superfluous and their only job is to imitate the necessity of their own existence, and that needs to change.

Day No. 51 in the prime minister's seat 🗓️ - NGO Day in the Cabinet of Ministers 🤝 Meeting with President @edgarsrinkevics - we discussed current national security issues and what's happening in the Cabinet and the coalition. 💰 Deputy compensation. Again a question that demands responsibility, not excuses. I believe manipulations with compensation will always exist. That is not a reason not to oversee them. Control and transparency must be strengthened. Deputies' salaries are adequate, so compensation must be really justified and verifiable, not interpretable. Such an approach exists throughout the democratic world, and the compensation system itself is normal practice. ✍️ The other topic - J. Dombrava's letter to Spain. I have already discussed this situation with the Minister of the Interior. The letter initiated by Italy and Denmark, signed by 22 EU member states, addressed to the EU leadership, was a clear and unambiguous gesture on behalf of the state. I signed it on Saturday. 🇱🇻 Latvia is represented in foreign affairs by three officials: the President, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. No matter how fast everything is happening in the world now, it is important to follow specific guidelines. 🏛️ The meeting with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) at the Cabinet of Ministers, which I initiated, showed one thing: clearly, NO ONE FOLLOWS UP ON USEFULNESS. 🧩 Why did I say the prepared presentations are SHIT? Because they did not give the full picture of the situation. The data are fragmentary, fragmented. Even the responsible ministries cannot obtain a full picture within a month. The collected data give NO (!!!) overview of where the state's tax money goes. ❓Reports, documents, calculations, and audits are already being made. The papers are clean, but does anyone check whether it matches state priorities? Are the measures taken useful? Did the budget funding reach the goal? Where do audits and their reports end up? Which official draws CONCLUSIONS? The goal is one - a strong and independent NGO sector that is not bureaucratic or formal, that does not simply absorb funds but works for the good of people and the state. Such NGOs will always have my support. 🤍 Being strong first means being independent. One behind which stand members, supporters, communities. It is not good if the state is the only source of income and provider of the NGO's existence. That weakens NGOs, not strengthens. 🙄A very interesting nuance - I also got a sexism accusation from a representative of “Sievietei paveicās”. For that I allow myself to ask a question to the head of the Civil Union. It turns out that you cannot talk to women about the use of the state budget. 🤷‍♂️ 📋 Next steps, where I expect a result in a month: 1️⃣ All ministries to identify what is granted to NGOs: amount of funding, recipients, legal basis, specific goal. 2️⃣ The Ministry of Finance, when reviewing budget expenditures, must separately evaluate expenditures related to NGO funding, their justification, effectiveness, and alignment with state priorities. 3️⃣ The Ministry of Culture together with the Ministry of Finance must develop clear, transparent principles for allocating NGO funding. 4️⃣ The Ministry of Finance must develop proposals for improving the NGO funding system and increasing private sector participation, including tax instruments that would motivate people and companies to support NGOs. Wherever there is public money, asking about its use is normal. ⚠️ It is alarming if elementary questions about the use of funds are called signs of authoritarianism or even fascism. Maybe that is why some politicians tried to use this discussion about NGOs for their own ends. 📰 Afternoon interview with POLITICO, a broad conversation with @politico journalist Max Griera. We discussed both security issues and the proximity of the upcoming elections, my plans for the prime minister's post, and much more. I will share the interview soon. 🎙️ 💭 At the end of the day, I want to emphasize once again that responsibility is not loud words. It is daily work with details that others do not want to see. That is why I will continue to ask: where does the money go and who is responsible for it.

@PeterisJur We have turned into a great power of documents, opinions and writing off, but the person has disappeared in all of it. And then a citizen with their problem receives ten such documents, although in reality all their issue could possibly be resolved in a 20-minute conversation with a live civil servant.

@gdavidsons I don't want to sound vulgar, but reading your comment, the words that a smart dick doesn't chop wood fit. Send news to ex-President Bērziņš about the construction of the EU fund guest house (read: private house), not about these men who work their guts out to develop business with local capital.

That was noticeable already in the last municipal elections, but they will convict Brēmanis sooner or later...

@AivarsOzo Well, if it doesn't work out, you can take this one as Irsa's commentator. Won't have to bite in loneliness...

@jaunups Both LC and TP, in other words, in Sončiks' times. Then even the big speakers burst from the devil's pulling…

The more developed Latvia's municipalities are, the stronger the state itself is. That's why I have always used the opportunity to talk with city mayors about various issues. Today another valuable meeting with the mayor of Liepāja @GunarsAnsins. https://t.co/1uLuExBRiG