On Thursday evening, the 17th of August, the 33-member coalition formed in the Riga City Council (RD). In their own words, the coalition brings together “state-minded political forces”. As it was predicted earlier, they have elected deputy Vilnis Kirsis (JV) as its chairman, thus giving him a generous present for his upcoming birthday.
Against him voted 17 of 51 councillors who took part in the election, and one ballot paper was declared invalid. After his election, Kirsis said that he does not promise easy life and urged everyone to get to work and whenever necessary talk out problems among themselves.
Formerly a head of the municipality, Kirsis took over when in early July as the previous head of the city council Martins Stakis suddenly resigned.
From now on the largest faction (12 seats) will bear only Progresivie name.
As only nominated candidate for the post of the Riga City Council head [Kirsis], addressing the deputies at the beginning of the session, said that in the formation of the future majority “we have gone through all the negotiating circles in good faith”, and now everything has resulted in a “cooperative coalition”.
Progresivie councillors, on the other hand, harshly criticised the new majority as a “coalition of calculation” and as traitors to the ideals of the previous “coalition of change”. Therefore, the former deputy chair of the Riga City Council, Linda Ozola, trying to contradict this, said that
if the calculation is correct, marriages of convenience tend to be stable and successful, and this is a case of a correct calculation.
Oppositionists from the Saskana faction insisted that the council would not be able to fully function and that extraordinary elections were needed.
As the most important priority of his new job Vilnis Kirsis named putting Riga’s street infrastructure in order – which is also what most people are interested in now. His second priority is housing policy: promoting the construction of rental houses, insulation of buildings, improving management, and, if there will be funds left, building municipally owned housing (e.g., to attract teachers).
“I am still young, but dare I say, an experienced politician who does not try to present himself as a revolutionary, a messiah, a hipster or any other popular role. Instead,
I am clear that my approach to the job will ensure predictable city governance for the citizens of Riga, so that Riga City Council is a regulated, citizen-friendly mechanism that operates transparently, on a well-established rhythm, safely and for a long time,” he said, addressing the councillors.
After the Kirsis speech, councillors made him pass a two-hour “exam” in which he had to answer questions on the whole spectrum of city governance – from school catering and residential courtyards to the Riga City Council budgeting.
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