Representatives of the so-called Daugavpils intellectuals hope the recent statements from Daugavpils Mayor Andrejs Elksniņš, that Crimea is now part of the Russian Federation, will be the turning point to execute a replacement of the city council, as reported by TV3 News.
Locals have already turned to security institutions and top-ranking state officials with a request to dissolve the existing Daugavpils City Council. Until now there was no justifiable reason for such a measure.
«I am somewhat satisfied that we will get a new city council chairman, and the officials in Riga will finally understand that we cannot go on as we used to. The last time we turned to Riga we basically told: cool, well done, but we can’t do anything at the moment. What I should say instead is: let’s wait until tanks roll into Daugavpils, and then we will finally agree that, wow, something is happening in Daugavpils! It’s easy to do – collect signatures for voters and ask uncle Putin to do something. This is a joke, of course, but I hope we will finally understand what loyalty and state security mean,» said principal of Daugavpils Music Secondary School Aivars Broks.
The also explains that Elksniņš does not hold majority of opinions in the city. Those that scream are loud, but there aren’t many of them. This is why the group responsible for the recent request says Daugavpils deserves a government loyal to Latvia.
Meanwhile, at a press-conference held on Tuesday, 8 November, Elksniņš provided an explanation to the statement he gave Delfi earlier – that Crimea is now part of Russia. «I said Crimea is basically under Russian rule now – there are Russian laws and institutes of power there,» he said.
Daugavpils mayor mentioned that, considering Crimea’s legal status from the perspective of international law, there is a number of UN General Assembly resolutions in place, and Latvia’s position was formulated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and proposal to end Crimea’s occupation and declaring the referendum of 2014 as null and void.
«As chairman of Daugavpils City Council the course of Latvia’s foreign policy is binding to me,» he added.
Aside from his statements about Crimea, he was evasive as to whether or not he is on Ukraine’s side, if he hopes Ukraine wins. He said there will be no winners in the war. When the interviewer tried asking clarifying questions, Elksniņš responded by saying she was trying to «examine» him.
He also stressed that «Daugavpils has not paid a cent» towards the demolition of Soviet monuments in the city, Delfi reports.
In accordance with the law, half of monument demolition costs are covered by the state, and the other hand – by the municipality. Daugavpils City Council turned to the Constitutional Court over this, however.
Elksniņš said that to respect requirements of the law, Daugavpils City Council announced an open tender to hire a company to demolish the monuments. A winner was also publicly announced.
Once the tender was over, Elksniņš convened with the head of the city council’s financial department, lawyers and other colleagues. The conclusion they reached is that the municipal budget has no money to afford paying for demolition of monuments.
Following the verdict of the Constitutional Court and restrictions imposed by State Police, a closed procurement followed up. A company participating in it agreed to do the job for EUR 40 700.
Daugavpils mayor also criticized how the Saeima did not communicate with municipalities as the law was being passed. He says the parliament therefore breached the Constitution. He also said the legislator did not study the unique situation in Daugavpils beforehand.
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Daugavpils City Council at risk of dissolution
