Latvian Political Monitor

🏛️ Today is a symbolic and nationally significant moment. After nearly eight years, coalition cooperation meetings return to the Saeima building. Once, as Speaker of the Saeima, I invited then Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš to move these meetings back to parliament. Not because the venue matters most, but because the logic of the state system matters. Latvia is a parliamentary democracy. The government is formed by the Saeima majority. The coalition is not the government's property. It is the Saeima majority's political agreement on responsibility before the state. Therefore it is right that political cooperation, in which the working issues of the Saeima and the government are coordinated, takes place in the Saeima building - the place where the democratic mandate is born, where the vote of confidence in the government is given, and where the government is politically accountable to the people's elected representatives. With the formation of the government led by the United List, this order is being restored. It is a small step in everyday politics, but a significant step in the culture of parliamentarism. 🇱🇻 The state begins with the Constitution. The foundation of the Saeima is the trust mandate of the Latvian people. The government begins with the trust of the Saeima. And the coalition must remember where its mandate comes from. #demokratija #satversme #parlamentarisms #valdiba #apvienotaissaraksts @Apvienotais_ @LRApvieniba

To reduce the risks of wasting public funds, we will initiate a review of priority state procurement and the procurement of the largest capital companies, paying special attention to cost increases, contract amendments, and risks of restricting competition. - https://t.co/JPNgP1QE21 via @nralv

The new government has been approved in the Saeima, and now there is intensive work ahead to ensure responsible, effective and targeted use of funds, so that state funding provides a real contribution to Latvia's security, economic development and quality of life of the population.

Any new political initiatives, when forming the budget, must be linked to one of the main priorities – security, healthcare, education. Budget spending must be rational, sustainable. https://t.co/mIpELNlfxx

📍When forming the government, from time to time someone needs to be reminded – now we have to save the state, not forge unrealistic future plans; 📍The budget must find large sums to ensure state functions, and this can be done without affecting residents. https://t.co/y5MGjt6Tgg

It would be logical if @EvikaSilina resigned herself, but that has not happened, the Saeima must vote—better a terrible end than terrors without end; There has been a large gap between the army and the political leadership of @AizsardzibasMin; Seeing what is happening with drones, people feel unsafe https://t.co/XqQ3fUeTzB

📍 @AndrisSpruds's resignation will not do anything bad to national security; 📍 The Defense Ministry's operations under Sprūds show that it is not ready for a real attack; 📍 @VARAM_Latvija and @VDAA_gov_lv have destroyed trust in state IT systems, and that is dangerous https://t.co/XILUHF9Ego

Another failure in @VARAM_Latvija's areas of responsibility - in the near future a significant number of ID cards may run out of validity for their electronic signature certificates, creating a risk of losing one of the card's most essential functions for an undetermined period.

We will write a submission to the prosecutor's office…

That is the prosecutor's office's competence. We will write a submission.

Respect to TET, LMT and "Latvian State Forests" – in a short time they accomplished what others hadn't and saved the @VARAM_Latvija minister, his VDAA and @CVK_zinas together with the elections. Old literature described it more simply - when honor falters, marriage becomes the last support https://t.co/QJY74jeWdi

It is clear that the governance of state-owned enterprises in Latvia needs to be improved, but it must be a concrete strategy developed by the government, on which everyone has politically agreed, rather than a long-marinated concept that has long lost its meaning and better fits the term 'chaos'. https://t.co/bR0XEzAore

The Artificial Intelligence Centre is doing important work for Latvia's long-term development. It is important that the most significant state institutions, including the Saeima, are partners of the centre, not deniers of new trends. There was a lively discussion on this in the Saeima's State Administration and Municipal Affairs Committee https://t.co/4eU2kyrtr3

It won't happen. They asked. All of VARAM's and its agencies' failures were blamed on CVK, which the law did not even allow to interfere in the work of the now “famous” agency. The law was later changed—now for the election period, some part of it legally comes under CVK's authority.

The establishment of election systems in Latvia is accompanied by one drama after another, but there is no positive result. The conviction is growing that @VARAM_Latvija does not know what is happening at @VDAA_gov_lv, living in the belief that everything is fine with IT systems, but when votes are counted by hand, the Saeima deputies are to blame https://t.co/gZTX4W4seU

It is hard to imagine how a kindergarten director would sneak into work late at night to commit crimes that need to be investigated by @KNABinforme. @Apvienotais proposes to exclude such institution directors from the circle of state officials. There is a lively discussion about this in the Saeima State and Local Government Commission.

Entrusting the creation of the Saeima election system to @mans_tet, LMT and @valstsmezi – that is a promising solution. Now it is important that @VDAA_gov_lv, which is under @VARAM_Latvija, does not mess everything up again, to put it in Latvian.

Interesting whether @raimondscudars will continue to claim that work on the Saeima election systems is proceeding vigorously, and that hand counting will happen only because Saeima deputies have wanted it so. In this way, @VARAM_Latvija and @VDAA_gov_lv only confirm their helplessness https://t.co/VyfVkf52fn

The Prime Minister oversees many councils where nothing happens, and which cannot be abolished because they are considered to address important issues; For public administration to improve, it is important that parties do not send idiots as ministers, on this there was a heated discussion with J.Endziņš and M.Gailis @LaSERdomnica https://t.co/2W3M8MLlNj