On Tuesday, the 13th of February, Andis Āboliņš from Latvian Green Party (LZP) was elected as the new chairman of Talsi County Council. 11 out of 19 municipal deputies voted in his favour.
Āboliņš was previously elected to Talsi County Council from the National Alliance, similarly to the now ex-chairperson Eva Kārkliņa. However, he later joined LZP.
At the beginning of the meeting, he said he previously supported Kārkliņa because voters gave her the majority of votes in the 2021 municipal elections. However, he also said the direction the chairperson had taken in the past two months was unacceptable to him. “First municipal workers were not paid bonuses in December. I believe we cannot make decisions about the future of our schools based only on Excel spreadsheets. I believe the secondary school stage should be preserved in Mērsrags and Valdemārpils, because until there is a government decision, the municipality has no reason to shut down schools,” said Āboliņš.
When asked why he won’t support Āboliņš as the new chairman, municipal deputy and former vice-chairman Aldis Pinkens from New Unity said that Āboliņš is unworthy of taking this post because he was the one who overthrew a member of his team to get the seat himself.
Talsi County Council remained without a chairman since the 5th of February, when 11 members of the opposition decided to overthrow non-party Eva Kārkliņa.
Former vice-chairman for national economy affairs Lauris Pīlēģis (We – For Talsi and County) called another extraordinary meeting last week. No quorum was secured at that meeting. At the meeting organised on the 7th of February, however, 11 deputies voted for the council to appoint a new chairman today. The municipality’s executive director Ivars Haselbaums was ordered to prepare an agenda for the meeting and include the legislative draft “On the Election of a Chairman for Talsi County Council” to it. After the extraordinary meeting of the 7th of February, vice-chairmen Pīlēģis and Aldis Pinkens lost their posts.
Talsi has been in a state of political crisis since the 5th of February, when 11 members of the opposition overthrew Kārkliņa. Because the ruling coalition fell apart as well shortly after, both vice-chairmen announced their decision to step down.
Opposition members criticised the previous chairman for unskilled use of the municipality’s financial resources, which made it difficult to prepare a non-deficit budget. Opposition deputies also had limited access to information regarding the budget and planned solutions to balance it, which created concerns about the municipality’s ability to continue providing support to residents.
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