The National Alliance (NA) will demand explanations from Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs (AS) over his objections to a proposed immigration restriction plan, Artūrs Butāns, deputy chairman of the NA parliamentary group, told the LETA news agency.
According to Butāns, NA joined the coalition to work, and restricting immigration is one of the party’s priorities. “That is why we ensured that this was included both in the government declaration and in the action plan,” Butāns said. “These sudden emotional objections now raise suspicions about the interests of narrow economic groups or the unwillingness of certain politicians to implement the action plan, which is unacceptable to us. Therefore, we will demand explanations from the prime minister.”
The MP said NA would still decide on the format in which it would seek an explanation, but would definitely invite the prime minister to explain his position in a face-to-face meeting.
Asked whether NA would continue working in the coalition, Butāns said the party still hopes an agreement can be reached on restricting immigration.
“That is why we want to be assured that the prime minister has not changed his mind and that narrow economic interest groups have not influenced the government’s ability to act. Therefore, nothing more is currently on the agenda,” the politician said.
As NA told LETA, the government-approved action plan tasks the Ministry of the Interior with developing an immigration restriction plan, including the conclusions previously reached by the Saeima parliamentary inquiry commission chaired by Jānis Dombrava (NA) regarding necessary changes to immigration regulations and the work of state institutions.
NA believes immigration policy is directly linked to Latvia’s security. If the government has set a specific task with a deadline and a document has been prepared to implement it, consideration of that document should not be postponed without clear justification, the party said.
At the same time, NA argues that information publicly provided by the prime minister about the coordination process for the document prepared by the Ministry of the Interior does not correspond to the actual situation. The immigration restriction plan has been available for coordination on the legislative acts portal since 24 July. Therefore, according to NA, there are no grounds for claiming that the document has not undergone a proper coordination process.
The NA parliamentary group will invite the prime minister for talks to clarify his position and seek confirmation that decisions necessary to restrict immigration will not be delayed in the future. The party will also call on the prime minister to maintain respectful and appropriate communication, particularly on matters concerning the work of government ministers and issues of national importance.
As previously reported, Prime Minister Kulbergs has sharply criticised the immigration restriction plan proposed by NA on social media.
In a post on X, Kulbergs described the proposal submitted to the coalition as Interior Minister Dombrava’s “pretend fight against migrants” and characterised NA’s overall activities aimed at restricting immigration as a “tantrum by a petulant kindergartener”.
Kulbergs argued that Dombrava is not interested in achieving real results in restricting migration, but rather in “loud and pointless shouting” that is being used to “fool his own voters”.
The prime minister criticised Dombrava for allegedly failing to understand what it means to be a minister by submitting a completely uncoordinated document to the government. According to Kulbergs, the document had not been coordinated with 14 institutions, including various ministries and business representatives.
“Simply showing up, dropping a document on the government’s desk and then declaring that ‘everyone is against combating immigration’ is crude, cheap and populist vote-fishing without any basis whatsoever,” the prime minister said in his assessment of Dombrava’s actions.
At a meeting of the coalition parties on Monday, the political forces agreed that the document must undergo further coordination. A special political meeting will be held on Friday, 4 September, to reach agreement on its content.
In the prime minister’s view, the objections to NA’s proposed plan are not merely formal but substantive. For example, Kulbergs said Dombrava had “suddenly decided to take two European Commissioners to court and propose amendments to an EU directive”.
“The Interior Minister cannot simply bypass all Cabinet procedures, throw an uncoordinated document onto the government’s desk and demand an immediate decision,” Kulbergs continued. “If we genuinely want to restrict illegal migration, we need results, properly prepared decisions and professional work, not loud slogans and political theatre.”
The prime minister’s office later issued a statement explaining the situation in more measured terms. Kulbergs acknowledged that restricting migration had previously been established as a government objective.
The prime minister noted that in early June he instructed the Interior Minister to begin developing comprehensive migration policy guidelines in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education and Science, Economics, and Welfare.
The government action plan also provides for restricting the issuance of new long-term visas and residence permits, setting a permitted number of third-country nationals, strengthening controls over residence permits and preventing unscrupulous sponsors from inviting foreign nationals to Latvia. The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for preparing an informative report by 1 September.
Kulbergs said the problem is not the idea of tighter migration controls itself, but rather the content of the submitted document and the process by which it was prepared.
During the coordination process, ministries and social partners maintained significant objections to several proposals. For example, the State Chancellery noted that fundamental migration policy issues should be addressed in a policy planning document, while the Ministry of Economics objected to introducing a separate working-time tracking system for third-country nationals and restricting their ability to work as self-employed persons.
Employers’ organisations also support strengthening migration controls but are calling for proportionate and practically enforceable control mechanisms.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, raised objections concerning the legal competence behind certain proposals and Latvia’s actions at European Union level, including matters related to EU visa policy, according to the prime minister’s statement.
As previously reported, the immigration restriction plan prepared by the Ministry of the Interior will not be included on Tuesday’s government agenda due to objections from coalition partners.
According to Dombrava, the Ministry of the Interior has transformed the final conclusions of the parliamentary inquiry commission into an action plan containing measures aimed at addressing the root causes of immigration-related problems.
These include measures concerning higher education, responsibility for businesses that “attempt to legalise immigrants here through various schemes”, as well as those involved in illegal transportation operations involving arrivals from other European Union countries.
Dombrava said the plan currently contains more than 70 measures with specific courses of action for shaping future immigration policy. According to the politician, immigration policy should be based on national security interests.
Individual ministries could then assess how to secure the necessary workforce, for example by training specialists in Latvian educational institutions or attracting workers from other EU countries and “safe third countries”.
Dombrava also said the plan would establish a clear list of countries from which immigration would not be permitted, as well as countries from which people could be admitted only in limited numbers, for example for highly skilled employment.
Dombrava is advancing the immigration restriction plan within the coalition, including a proposal to introduce quotas for third-country nationals.
The plan was developed on the basis of conclusions reached by the Saeima parliamentary inquiry commission on immigration, which Dombrava previously chaired. Its final report contained around 100 recommendations aimed at improving immigration policy and its enforcement, the minister’s adviser Marija Luīze Ratniece told LETA.
Now serving as Interior Minister, Dombrava has moved to put those Saeima recommendations into practice.
Read also: Quotas, raids and deportations: Latvia plans stricter rules for third-country nationals