Neither the government declaration nor the approved state budget plan for 2023 provide any clear answer how to accomplish state development, said politologist and public relations specialist Filips Rajevskis.
He said the approved state budget is neither incredibly great nor incredibly bad. The problem is that the approved budget does not give the impression the government has a vision to speed up Latvia’s development.
Rajevskis mentioned the state budget is a language of numbers the government can use to explain political and economic intentions. However, the state budget for 2023 does not provide such a vision.
Although the state debt is on a rise, there is no answer where the money will go to make sure residents have a better life,
improve the economic situation and increase economic activity. This would mean higher income, better-paid jobs and larger tax revenue.
When asked about the budget approval process, Rajevskis said working all night is an old tradition. In the previous Saeima there was an agreement that all decision-making would wait until the next day to make sure deputies do not become exhausted and to maintain a sharpness of the mind.
«I believe it is funny to see the parliament return to this tradition. Whether the budget was approved in the morning or evening on Friday would have made no difference in quality. Any one of us has worked or studied at night at some point in our lives. We know what it means. We usually resort to this in a state of crisis. I believe in this case there was no crisis,» said the politologist.
Rajevskis mentioned the approval of the budget passed relatively calmly despite moments of arguments during debates and signs of the process being difficult.
He turned attention towards the fact that when the government was being composed and Progressive party was excluded from it, it was believed the government would have a difficult time to operate with a small majority of votes. Rajevskis stressed the budget approval is the moment when the shortage of votes is felt the most.
He stressed that
this budget formation process demonstrated there are enough votes
and it can be passed with a small majority of votes, which indicates the government and coalition are stable.
When asked if this time the Saeima refused ‘budget quotas’, the politologist said there are no special decisions in regards to tasks like restoration of chapels or rural culture halls. Rajevskis stressed there were cases of parties hawking their interests. However, standards have risen, if slightly, considering parties are more focused on their own and their voters’ interests.
Also read: Latvian Saeima approves state budget of 2023 after a night of heated debates