Prime Minister Evika Siliņa’s message to Saeima deputies about what the government has achieved could, in short, be summed up like this: the government has worked in difficult geopolitical conditions, yet our economy is growing. But is Latvia’s reality really as rosy as that? BNN asked Filips Rajevskis, political analyst and co-owner of the company Mediju tilts.
“The problem is that a culture of lies has appeared in politics. In the context of the prime minister’s report, one of the main points of criticism was why there was no normal information about both the positives and the negatives. Instead, there is a rather primitive form of self-praise and a pretence that nothing negative has happened. Siliņa and Vienotība are being seriously criticised for this lack of open, meaningful and normal conversation.”
This trend in modern Latvian politics is new, says Rajevskis. “Perhaps it started after the processes around the Istanbul Convention, when everyone who wanted to have a discussion was immediately labelled a Kremlin agent. Perhaps it is because the media have come under direct state influence — we saw that yesterday in Siliņa’s speech, when she quite directly reminded people who pays the salaries at Latvian Television. This is some kind of new dimension now.”
Asked why politicians speak about the 2.1% GDP growth recorded last year, but remain silent about how the promised 25% reduction in bureaucracy has actually turned out, the analyst said that
in this respect one can agree with the opposition’s criticism, although a number of things have indeed been done.
“The problem is who pays and will pay for it. A 2.1% growth rate with such a massive fiscal stimulus and such extensive borrowing clearly shows that this is not sustainable. With this kind of fiscal stimulus, economic growth should have been significantly higher than 2.1%. They promise it will be much higher this year, but that speech was supposed to be an account of what has been done, not another session of making promises.”
Asked by BNN which election promises voters should watch especially carefully, Rajevskis said people should pay very close attention to how politicians answer difficult and uncomfortable questions.
“Is the conversation meaningful and open, or is it just demagoguery, with geopolitics blamed for everything and who knows what else invented on top of that? We can all see that as soon as there is a question about healthcare, they start talking about the geopolitical situation; when the topic is investment, again it is the geopolitical situation; when the issue is migration or safety on the streets, once more we hear that everything is happening in a difficult geopolitical situation. Of course, the situation is not simple, but that does not mean we should postpone everything and just watch the country stagnate.
That is the major problem and the main question for politicians.”
Another issue that is hardly helping to raise prosperity is the insane rise in prices and, accordingly, the waste of taxpayers’ money in major state procurements. Asked by BNN whether the government should nevertheless put these cost increases into some reasonable framework, Rajevskis replied that Latvia’s problem in this context is that no one takes responsibility for it.
“Those responsible are not identified, no sanctions are imposed on them, and society sees complete irresponsibility and impunity. We keep hearing that now there finally will be accountability, but for past actions and failures no one is held responsible. That is the biggest problem.”
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