Latvian Political Monitor

2/2 Still in spring there were news that OTP continues to earn in Russia. Here are obvious operational and reputational risks, not to mention sanctions risks. We continue to wait for a comment from the prime minister. Is this accepted or slept over, while fighting against NGOs for 61 EUR? https://t.co/rdvWBDq1M8

“Thank you for the vote of confidence from a bank that has such strong positions in the Russian market!” -> 1/ https://t.co/umVMKZjhXW https://t.co/beEAaqQaCY

🛡️ Defense Minister Raivis Melnis has ordered to significantly strengthen the protection of Latvia's eastern border against drone threats by the end of September.

@UldisGelins @Zaklina2022 Recidivism of an administrative violation occurs when a person who has previously been punished commits a new violation. This also applies to cases where a person who was previously punished for driving a vehicle without a license does so again. If such an offense is committed under the influence of alcohol/drugs, a criminal penalty is applied.

Back in spring there were reports that OTP continues to increase its portfolio in Russia. The bank has both operational and reputational risks, not to mention sanctions risks. We continue to wait for the prime minister/government's comment. Hopefully this will be a higher priority than NGO funding. https://t.co/cadqQBiVJY

💯🤝 @partijaMMN https://t.co/Uo3hfLETl3

IMF DIAGNOSIS FOR LATVIA — The International Monetary Fund claims that Latvia must increase budget revenues. Along with that comes the thesis about poor political governance—politicians who think money comes from people's wallets rather than from conditions that unlock the entrepreneurial spirit and the will to work. That is why the IMF's recommendations are unpleasant: reducing tax relief, broadening the tax base, improving VAT collection, and increasing property tax. In other words, it is an instruction for politically motivated theft. In my opinion, October 3 will be the last chance to change the situation, because Latvians will not be able to survive the current 'order' for another four years. The current political offers have been only gifts offered by PR specialists to specific demographic voter groups that are large enough to reach the 5% threshold needed to enter the Saeima. A very leftist order, because it is based on throwing everything earned by society into one pot and redistributing it in favor of one's own electorate. Socialism that offers you other people's property and views society as competing interest groups. Only because of such thinking can one propose raising the retirement age to compensate for the shrinking number of young workers. Such promises are a chase for power for power's sake. Perhaps it is also a Soviet-era legacy—believing that political paradise will come with a certain budget increase in a specific sector. Let's reach 5% of GDP for defense and all problems will be solved. But that too is leftist thinking, because it assumes that the state can 'feel out' society's needs better than the individual. Excessive expansion of the state's role leads to rising external debt, tax increases, and demotivation of workers to earn. A conservative approach offers not redistribution but creating rules of the game that do not restrict the willingness to work, that unleash the entrepreneurial spirit, allowing people to earn, with the fruits of labor becoming the main driver of action. The chase for prosperity for prosperity's sake, with a high probability, will turn into the opposite outcome. Wealth is the result of fair competition and not robbing those who create added value. In the long run, of course. Currently there is only one conservative party that offers reducing the state's role, returning responsibility for spending one's own money to the citizen—WE CHANGE THE RULES. We are the only ones who openly admit that the state currently has no money, just as we are the only ones who offer an action plan to create it without additional borrowing. Namely, allowing people to earn, not asking for more than they can give, and reducing state spending by halving the bureaucracy. Some points of MMN's economic program: deficit-free budget and zero-based budget, let's cancel property tax on the only home, amnesty debt obligations, double the tax-exempt minimum for each dependent. More: https://t.co/7dc4fy3xny https://t.co/U4fir9K4yk

Rail Baltica is not a part-time project. Therefore, the board of the project implementation company must work full-time with full responsibility. New Unity's idea of part-time management is unacceptable. A century infrastructure project cannot be managed 'by the way'. Who will we hold accountable afterwards? https://t.co/LJ5WSJQVmp

@VeikoSpolitis @tikums @liepina999 @berzina6592 @AtlasDynam1cs @kr_klavins @GalvGatis

🎾 “Latvijas attīstībai” - 11th list 🗳️ https://t.co/1xNbfBoo47

@guntarsv Politics is realized not only in the amount of money allocated. And currently, after three budgets have been adopted, I see that the only implementer of policy in budget adoption is the Ministry of Finance. The process is designed so that politicians have as little opportunity as possible to meaningfully decide.

Today Kulbergs' government has the opportunity to decide on recovering 50 million from companies that lobbied for illegal support. Let's see whether AS, NA and, of course, JV will yield to ZZS pressure to do nothing. Or will we continue to hear about NGO 'parasites'? https://t.co/xdSh1Et8ks

@guntarsv The goal is to ensure predictable funding for the sports sector similar to VKKF. The Ministry of Finance has never liked a solution that ties taxes to specific expenditures. That reduces the Ministry of Finance's flexibility - not the Saeima's. The theses you are replaying here are the ones I have been hearing for 4 years.