On Thursday, the 8th of February, the Latvian Saeima rejected opposition party National Alliance’s (NA) no-confidence sentiment towards Minister of Transport Kaspars Briškens.
39 Saeima deputies voted in favour of his dismissal, and 49 voted against.
Former minister Jānis Vitenbergs (NA) said on behalf of his party that no one ever said the post of the minister of transport is a simple one. However, before taking post, Briškens worked in multiple influential posts related to the transport sector. Vitenbergs also claimed Briškens doesn’t want to take responsibility. “He was everywhere but he wants others to be responsible for results,” said the politician.
Vitenbergs also criticised Briškens for not defending his sector during budget formation negotiations,
and not fighting to make sure the transport sector is seen as a government priority. Vitenbergs also stressed there are so many problems in the transport sector that there is no time to delay solutions.
“We invite presenting Briškens with no confidence vote for his failure to fight for his ministry’s institutions and his failure to manage them. The minister of transport is responsible for the sector’s strategic management. Right now the situation in various areas managed by the ministry is worsening rapidly, and Briškens is avoiding getting involved in solutions. In some cases he does it too late an in a chaotic manner, without properly explaining decisions. None of this indicates good management,” said the former minister.
According to Vitenbergs, Briškens worked with Rail Baltica project for a long time and held managing posts for many years, but the real situation with the project and costs to allow the railway route to pass through Riga was reported by Vitenbergs in July 2023. At the time the politician believed the project could be salvageable. However, after observing the situation for half a year and related development, Vitenbergs is no longer as optimistic.
The former minister of transport also believes the form of communication and channels chosen by Briškens and his office is surprising and confusing. On top of that, the former minister also accuses his colleague of taking important matters to social networks instead of solving them directly with companies of the transport sector.
In his response, Briškens stressed that he took the post of minister of transport regardless of the problems left in the sector by his predecessors.
Responding to the criticisms from Vitenbergs, the minister stressed that the NA member made many factual mistakes in his speech, and that he approached his address just as “frivolously” as he had once approached his duties as minister. LETA reports that last year there were failed attempts to expand the government coalition that was in power at the time.
Briškens said that NA had failed to lower the transit of Russian goods even though the party was in power for several years.
He stressed that he and his Baltic colleagues have started “openly talking” about Rail Baltica-related issues like management of the project’s infrastructure and provision of rolling stock.
According to Saeima deputy Māris Sprindžuks, the government has no idea about the situation in regions. Briškens’ party Progressives have no representation in regions. According to Sprindžuks, the problems in the transport sector exist also because the state policy is not unified.
The chairman of the Saeima faction of the party Latvia in First Place Ainārs Šlesers stressed that “the transport sector is burning with a blue flame”, and that Briškens is a poor minister. He encouraged Briškens to start working like a minister, which, according to Šlesers, means “slamming the table with your fist every now and then”.
Also read: BNN ASKS | Ideological opponents: what’s the opinion on EU’s asylum and migration reform?
Follow us on Facebook and X!