The forests of Puze are humming joyfully… Joy is back in the faction of the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) as well. Just days before, these 16 mandates were “political weakness”, unable to serve their lord or their municipalities. Now, after the election urged to announce the PM, he really needs “farmers-socialists” in Saeima.
To be precise, Krišjānis Kariņš on Latvian Radio said: “What I wanted when we build this government, was a wider coalition. I wanted that all these months, nothing has changed.” He also adopted the opinion of his fiercest rival Uldis Pīlēns that Saeima is there for all the citizens of Latvia…
Like anyone who “gave a little finger to the devil”, Kariņš is confused and self-righteous. As recently as last autumn this same man told us at the election night that there is no option for him to cooperate with the ZZS if it continues to keep a connection with former Ventspils mayor Lembergs, as well as with Lembergs himself, who stood against NATO, who is sanctioned by the US, who is charged with serious offenses. Arvils Ašeradens, the leader of the PM party New Unity (JV) confirmed it, and the society believed that Unity considers the “red lines” a question of principle.
So, everything we heard at the time of the election campaign and within the days of making the government, was a blatant lie? Well, let’s put it more politely –
the red lines, as we clearly see now, were tactics, not the principle for the New Unity.
The fuddle of victory is over now. It is now clear that the defeated ones – Combined List and National Alliance – are not ready to give up and help Unity to finalize their vote purchase deal. No, they are standing solid as a cliff.
Confusion wave in the society and hysteria in the social networks regarding the second coming of Lembergs’ minions warns Unity: they were way too confident believing that the winners are in the safe, that election of Rinkēvičs will keep everyone quiet! Even inexperienced Progressives, when the rush of adrenaline from the election faded away, came to their senses and understood that the readiness to join the government blessed by Lembergs may cost too much and even prove lethal. However, they can still reverse.
One lie brings another, one nonsense leads to the next. Does Kariņš, Ašerandens, Ainars Latkovskis, and others from the party think that they can cover themselves with symbolic fig leaves? With the declarative announcement that the party doesn’t cooperate with persons that are charged with serious crimes, and that party firmly stands against corruption and theft? Who are they lying to – us, stupid folk, or to themselves?
Does Unity really believe that “the elections are over the hills and far away”?
The wake-up call should be the election of the European Parliament already in a year, but the party has just torn its own moral mandate! People did not vote for Unity and Kariņš so that state companies could sell some of their shares on the stock exchange! No, they believed that the party and the politician would protect Latvia from the rebirth of the oligarchy, from new twists and turns in the arrangement of the business environment, and from fruitful Rīdzene negotiations. Mr. Kariņš, how do the voters feel now?
Does the party’s possible remaining without its representation in the EU legislature seem an adequate price for efforts to “give their place” to Kariņš government partners in the presidential elections?
What does Inese Lībiņa-Egnere think about the deal with ZZS? The Justice Minister surely understands that she herself is or will be a part of it. Let’s remember, the inhabitant of the Puze forests has a very complicated relationship with Themis and her servants in the robes of judges.
Does Kariņš really think that Lembergs could be as easily dropped on the street as it was with Pīlēns?
That this could be achieved by simply not issuing him a pass to enter the 36th building of Brīvības Boulevard? The man with the bright clothes and the hat has 16 minions in the Saeima, some more “Lembergs profiles” will also be in the government that Unity now has to form.
In the new Cabinet of Ministers, not only the ZZS itself will serve the many needs of the Puze forest, but the coalition partners will also have to do it “in the name of government stability”. The prime minister – no matter, Kariņš, Ašeradens, or someone else – will be Lemberg’s envoy. It doesn’t matter what the prime minister himself, the party’s “strategic communication” specialists, political observers, and media fed by them (or just enraptured by inertia) tell us about it.
This is not the first case in the history of the Unity, when, falling into the excitement of intrigue, it “replans”. Let’s remember the fall of the government of Laimdota Straujuma, which could almost have led to the party not entering the 13th Saeima. In addition, Unity is far from the only party in power, which goes up to cloud nine and then lands in a puddle.
Some time ago, I warned the government parties not to fumble for the votes of the 36 “poisonous” members of the Saeima, so that they would not become political corpses. I am afraid that this moment of “coalition expansion” efforts is becoming the beginning of the sad end of the once competent, pro-European, and, above all, predictable for the voters, power in government- Unity.
Read also: BNN ASKS | Dzintars: New Unity drew the brightest “red lines”, but now tries to erase them