This week’s focus is on both the issue of public officials’ salaries and the acknowledgment by Saeima Speaker Daiga Mieriņa (ZZS) that not all MPs would pass an alcohol test. Are some of our parliamentarians truly in the grip of the “green dragon” (alcohol)? Will public officials’ salaries once again become a secret hidden from the public eye? And should they be frozen? BNN asked political scientist and co-owner of the company “Mediju tilts”, Filips Rajevskis.
The debate about whether officials’ salaries should continue to be publicly disclosed promises to be intense and interesting. Outgoing Ombudsman Juris Jansons has argued that disclosure would violate the constitutional right to privacy. However, President Edgars Rinkēvičs and Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (JV) have expressed support for continued transparency. Rajevskis points out that opinions on this matter are divided: “There is no consensus within the political elite about reducing transparency on this issue. It’s hard to believe they’d be willing to decrease openness at a time when the ruling coalition’s popularity and public trust are already shaky. In such a moment, no politician would risk saying: ‘We’ll stop showing what we earn and want to hide everything again.’”
Another “money issue” raising eyebrows is PM Evika Siliņa’s proposal for the coalition to consider freezing salary increases for ministers and other top public officials. Is this a real attempt at budget savings or merely a symbolic gesture aimed at the public?
Rajevskis believes this concerns the state budget directly:
“When we’re dealing with such a tight budget, freezing officials’ salary increases is an integral part of cutting it down.
Everyone must contribute their share, and Latvia is not in a situation where the public sector is underfunded.”
In other words, even with frozen salaries, high-ranking officials are unlikely to face financial hardship.
One of the week’s hottest stories is the Speaker’s hint that some MPs may have overly cozy relationships with alcoholic beverages.
When asked by BNN what such a statement might indicate, Rajevskis responded: “You can’t say that alcohol is foreign to Latvian society. To some extent, it’s a societal issue.
Parliament is a reflection of society, and that means MPs will also display the vices that are common among the population.”
Rajevskis also reminds us that this is not the first time alcohol use in the Saeima has drawn attention: “If we remember the days when alcohol was available in the Saeima cafeteria, things got pretty lively during budget debates. Some MPs made heavy use of the cafeteria. Now the cafeteria is gone, and alcohol is no longer available, but Old Riga as a whole remains a very tempting place.”
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