Ilona Bērziņa, BNN
The Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) with [criminally accused ex-Mayor of Ventspils] Aivars Lembergs as their figurehead has been sailing the political waters in Latvia for 21 years. Over the course of these years they have established such a close affinity and symbiosis with one another that it makes it impossible for this political party to distance from him. After repeating the mantra about “the good master” for years, ZZS now has such a fervent belief in it that the party now projects it with all of its collective strength.
Gunārs Kūtris and his comments about inviting “accused and convicted” millionaires to discuss the development of the country’s economy cost him the seat of the Saeima speaker. In an ironic twist of fate the parliament elected Daiga Mieriņa (also from ZZS) with support from New Unity (JV) and Progressive Party (PRO). Like Kūtris, however, a year prior she publicly said what Lembergs was doing in Ventspils is “genuine care”. There is an entire generation of ZZS politicians who maintain this ideology. This is why it should be no surprise that many of them religiously believe in the idea of “Lembergs – the Saviour or Fatherland”.
What is more dangerous, however, is Mrs. Mieriņa’s previous rhetoric in relation to the US sanctions imposed on the criminally accused Ventspils politician. Here I will cite her words: “You have to understand, if there is a new government, new ministers – they too will travel to America and ask them to lift sanctions. The same way anyone can travel to America and say – lets impose sanctions on one person or lift sanctions from this person or that.”
Of course people can say the weirdest things in the heat of pre-election competition. One may also say that Mrs. Mieriņa has changed her opinion and now truly believes the situation has changed since the pre-election period and that “national security, honour and dignity is more important than anything else for the party.” All due respect to the Mrs. Mieriņa that announced the decision to distance from Lembergs.
But sifting through spilled water is a difficult and thankless task. The biggest problem is that with all of these commends the US Department of Treasury Office for Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)
is painted as though some bureau for public orders,
in which one office issued sanctions on demand, and the other – lifts them on demand. It is simple to put this idea in people’s heads, but removing it is a much more difficult task.
Aivars Lembergs voiced similar opinions in his last year’s interview to Delfi.tv programme Nākamais, lūdzu!, where he said: “Kariņš’s and Bordāns’ government requested sanctions against me, but my government will ask these sanctions to be removed”. Basically the point of such opinions is to devalue the sanctions against Lembergs to zero while also positioning the corruption charges against him as something small and insignificant.
Suspicions of corruption, especially political is no dust that can be easily swept under the rug. But while in the so-called old democracies there is no tolerance for political corruption, in Latvia there is the popular belief “So what if he steals, what’s important is that he shares with others”. With his city, for instance.
This is where it is worth mentioning the scandal involving Austria’s former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was accused of bribing the media a couple of years ago. In 2016 Kurz had used state budget funds to create manipulated public opinion surveys that presented him as the most popular candidate. Popular newspapers were later paid to generate articles praising him. Am I the only one getting parallels with Latvia here?
However, the similarities end with the bribery of various media.
Thousands of people gathered outside the office of his party, demanding his dismissal. Kurz later stepped down as Chancellor, the seat of the party’s leader, and finally announced his departure from politics entirely.
For comparison – the Ridzene Negotiations scandal here in Latvia concluded with nothing. The so-called Lembergs’ scholarship case was terminated last year due to shortage of evidence (even though there was plenty of testimonies). This criminal case was under investigation for 17 (!) years. If anyone has forgotten, let me remind you – this criminal case was launched over Lembergs, possibly, secret payments to politicians of various parties in 2001-2007.
If we’re on the subject of ancient and not so ancient comments and events, I would also like to mention the gem spoken by Augusts Brigmanis (ZZS) in 2016. This comment was rather popular among politicians for some time. It goes like this: “Lembergs’ political stance and power is the reason why many look at him like frightened bunnies looking at a boa constrictor”.
While it’s unknown how many “frightened bunnies” there are on Latvia’s political stage, one more intrigue will be concluded this week. On the 27th of September, Riga Regional Court will announce the verdict in the criminal case involving Aivars Lembergs.
Also read: OPINION | A vote for Kūtris is a vote for his “good master”