On Thursday, 26 May, Latvia’s Saeima approved deputy chief of State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) Kristaps Eklons as the country’s new Minister of the Interior.
Eklons previously said he plans to continue tasks previously commenced by his predecessor Marija Golubeva and promote his own initiatives on top of that.
He agreed to take the post for multiple personal reasons, as well as to focus the state’s attention towards domestic security. Thanks to regular communication with Ukrainian colleagues, Eklons said he understood even more how important internal security is for state stability.
VUGD has had good cooperation with the previous minister, developing, among other things, a clear road map with specific tasks. However, most of them remain unfinished. This includes construction of a new fire fighter department. This is why he intends to continue tasks commenced by Golubeva and bring in some of his own initiatives.
Eklons believe it is necessary to develop general internal security through enhancement of civil protection.
On Monday, during his meeting with PM Krišjānis Kariņš, he became convinced the PM is aware of flaws in the civil protection system, adding that he is prepared to work on it.
Civil protection system includes basically all state and municipal companies. Eklons sees problems with operations of each individual subject. «We have not paid enough attention to this issue until now. We do have other issues to deal with in the crisis. The general picture did, however, help outline the problems. For example, the influx of Ukrainian refugees has helped reflect certain problems,» said the new minister.
Eklons confirms he is a «minister with no money», because the budget of the interior affairs sector for the year is already approved. He does say there are other ways to develop the interior affairs sector, such as administrative tools to help «reorganize the financing format».
«I want to bring a sense of security and stability to the interior affairs system to let all of us tackle the tasks before us. It’s not that we’ve been sitting idle this whole time, but we do need to correct details and add improvements,» as Eklons previously said.
Although the situation with the Soviet monument in Pārdaugava was the main reason for last minister’s decision to step down and the decision has already been made to demolish the monument in question, Eklons said he does not want to look narrowly at the issue with the monument. Instead he believes it is more important to look at the way mass events are handled. He plans to meet with representatives of the State Police and State Security Service.
Eklons wants to discuss with them the problems with this sector, so that improvements can be added. Eklons did say he has some thoughts about it. First, however, he wants to meet with representatives of law enforcement institutions.
«We need a timely prognosis. We can prepare in advance to reduce possible consequences of such events. It’s not possible to completely prevent consequences, because even US authorities could not prevent the Capitol attack of 2021 despite all available security resources,» said Eklons.
The new minister also said Daiga Holma, who was the head of Golubeva’s office, will remain in her post. The parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Mārtiņš Šteins will not be replaced either.
When asked if he plans to join AP and run in upcoming parliamentary elections, Eklons aid he hasn’t had any time to consider this.
«I want to consider my own place first before making any decisions. In the coming weeks, looking back and the past days and looking forward for the future, I won’t have time to consider all future plans,» added Eklons.