Opinion piece. Author: Ilona Bērziņa
“The Progressives will one day lead the government!” Andris Šuvajevs, head of the Saeima faction, announced at the party’s extraordinary congress. In fact, the Progressives are already laying down the rules to the Cabinet of Ministers in their own spheres of interest, but the head of government, Evika Siliņa, is forced to swallow all of this.
It is very likely that the Progressives live in their own bubble, where they make plans for the future in accordance with the party’s ideas and give indulgences to their ministers in a strictly hierarchical order. In other words, whatever kind of mess a minister may have made – hands off! Because the party and the party people are always right! If anyone doubts that, then that someone is rocking the government. It is no coincidence that Šuvajevs, after a meeting with the United List (AS) parliamentary faction, declared that any Progressive Minister is a matter of coalition stability. Because, holy moly, – AS dared to call on Prime Minister Evika Siliņa to replace the defence minister! According to Šuvajevs, AS’s actions are irresponsible, but Sprūd’s answers to the faction’s questions are excellent! At this point, anyone who follows political events is thinking that they are not the sharpest tool in the shed…
What has really happened? First of all, the Minister of Defence had to admit on LTV’s “Viens pret vienu” programme that the heroic story about the Russian drone being tracked since its appearance near the Latvian border on the Belarusian side is not really true. The Minister had to admit, after all, that a resident of Gaigalava Parish had informed about the drone crash in Rēzekne Municipality, and not the National Armed Forces, but the police. Sadly, this confession did not come without attempts at dodging the bullet.
I don’t think I am the only one who still doesn’t understand why both the Minister of Defence Andris Sprūds and the NBS Commander Leonīds Kalniņš couldn’t tell the truth at the press briefing on the 9th of September, but instead talked about monitoring, assessment, weighing the threat to civilians, etc., etc. There is no shame in admitting that an object as small as a drone is difficult to spot, as several military experts have said; there is shame in lying to the public and then pretending that it never happened.
The composition of the sculpture at the gates of the Ādaži base is not even worth talking about – if neither the Minister nor the NBS Commander sees that more than 180 thousand euros are being wasted, at least at the moment, in a totally untimely and inappropriate way, then one has to ask what are they doing there?
Another ingenious example is the Security and Community Resilience Forum in Indra, Krāslava Municipality. This forum was significant in several respects. Firstly, the very theme of the forum was about border security and its challenges; secondly, it was an opportunity to show the people living along the border that the state cares about them and that communication with them is not just a tick on the minister’s agenda. Unfortunately, Defence Minister Sprūds did not even honour these people with a tick; he simply did not turn up. There was an attempt by the Minister to address the gathered people by video, but, as “Ezerzeme” writes, it was successful only on the second attempt.
Is the Minister of Defence really not aware that the internet connection on Latvia’s eastern border tends to be slow and rebel? Meanwhile, the forum was attended by the British Ambassador to Latvia Paul Bramell, Minister of the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis, Director of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Strategic Communication Jānis Sārts, Secretary General of the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation Sigita Struberga, Director of the Northern Europe Policy Centre Artis Pabriks, PhD in Political Science, and many other distinguished people. Did the Minister of Defence really think that this company was too good for him? Or he simply did not want to go that far? If so, then in vain. The road to Latgale is much smoother and more pleasant than the streets of Riga.
The Defence Minister’s repeated refusals to meet with the United List MPs are also noteworthy. To a certain extent, the trigger can be understood. It is unpleasant to meet people who are unlikely to praise him and pat him on the shoulder. It’s really not difficult for a minister to find a hundred and one reasons not to go. However, the Saeima is still the legislator and the Minister’s Cabinet is the executive. In other words, Parliament is superior to the Government. Has the distinguished professor really forgotten that? I doubt it. Rather, the fault lies with the Progressives’ belief that everything the party does is well done. Even if it is utter rubbish. As Juris Pūce, who has now been elected chairman of “For the Development of Latvia”, aptly put it on X at the end of October: “Now, the news about Progressive ministers in the last two days shows that the “new policy” it promises is: 1) to sack an official who has led an institution for 20+ years by letter, without ever finding the time to say it to his face; 2) not to go to popularly elected MPs, because they don’t want to.”
A separate story is about the Progressives’ Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens, who has once again managed to make the public a bit angry, this time in the context of ViVi trains. Namely, the newly-acquired Škoda Vagonka electric trains could do similar tricks again as last winter – not opening the doors, not moving and what else not. However, Briškens should be applauded – unlike his colleague, at least he does not lie and makes it clear: there might be problems. Although, this way the Minister is thus leaving a cushion under his butt, because in the event of any mishap he can always remind himself – I warned you!
However, there is still Rail Baltica and airBaltic, where the outlook is not yet rosy. In the case of Rail Baltica, Briškens has until the adoption of the budget on the 4th of December to prove that he is not an imbecile and knows how to deal with the mess. The half a billion euros given to airBaltic from taxpayers’ money has not yet yielded any fruit either – the money has been spent, but the queue of potential investors is somehow not visible. Let us think for a moment – if this half a billion, as once promised, were returned to the treasury, would the food rations for the country’s poorest citizens be cut, or not? Maybe we should not also blame the one percentage point from the second level of pension contributions on the first? How is it really, Mr Briškens?
However, behind all these “feats” there is a real self-sacrifice on behalf of another party. And that is the ability of New Unity’s Evika Siliņa to swallow the soup served by Progressives in silence, smile and pretend that she likes it all very much. Because behind her is Šuvajevs with his agenda: any Progressive minister is a matter of coalition stability. Moreover, the Progressives are now necessary for the New Unity to successfully steer the government ship to the adoption of the budget. As the relatively recent past has shown, all it takes is for a few MPs from the ruling coalition to fall ill and be in a place from where they cannot be rushed to the Saeima for the stability of the Siliņa government to unworthy. That is why the opposition can shout till its hoot, the parliamentary commissions of inquiry can investigate what they want and how they want, but the progressive road roll will only go on. We shall see what happens after the adoption of the budget.