The Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) has convened an extraordinary board meeting today to discuss the political situation, the party announced.
The meeting will begin at 13:00, after which broader comments are expected.
During Thursday’s Saeima sitting, a vote of confidence was held for Minister of Transport Atis Švinka (Progressives). Two ZZS MPs — Uldis Augulis and Jānis Vucāns — supported the minister’s dismissal.
However, the coalition agreement states that coalition partner factions and MPs belonging to those factions do not initiate or support Saeima draft decisions expressing no confidence in the Cabinet of Ministers, the Prime Minister, or any minister.
Explaining his vote, Augulis told LETA that the minister, in meetings with the faction and in his speech before the Saeima, did not offer a convincing solution for next year — only hope for the support of the Ministry of Finance. There have been no talks with municipalities, and municipal leaders are preparing a letter to the Saeima, the Prime Minister, and committees, stressing that such a rapid reduction in routes is unacceptable.
Augulis also criticized the ideas of creating new companies under the Road Transport Administration
and implementing “transport on demand,” as these plans lack justification and financial backing.
He expressed the view that the minister does not understand the sector, and meetings are planned in the near future with carriers and trade unions to assess the situation more precisely.
Meanwhile, the head of the Progressives’ Saeima faction, Andris Šuvajevs, stated that this situation is “solely linked to the issue of Ventspils Port’s debts.” “This shows that our party’s and the minister’s principled stance against narrow-interest lobbying is inconvenient,” the MP said.
“The fact that two coalition MPs supported the minister’s dismissal indicates how unpredictable the coalition has become. In this context, I should note that if there were a vote in the Saeima on the dismissal of the Minister of Agriculture Armands Krauze (ZZS), I can no longer predict how the Progressives’ faction would vote,” Šuvajevs added.
Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity), responding to a question about whether this vote constitutes a breach of the coalition agreement, said on Thursday that the ZZS deputies’
decision to support Švinka’s dismissal request is “a matter of internal cooperation between coalition partners.”
Addressing MPs, Švinka said that the issue of public transport was inherited from previous ministers — Tālis Linkaits and Jānis Vitenbergs (NA).
He called on transport operators who are unable to fulfil their contracts to agree on terminating them so that the Road Transport Administration (ATD) can launch new procurements with better conditions and improved driver pay. Society needs transport operators that ensure safe and high-quality services, the minister emphasized.
Švinka stressed that the price per kilometre is determined under free-market competition rather than state regulation, so the minister cannot change it. He plans to announce new procurements that reflect the current market situation, seek legal regulation for loss compensation, begin digitalization, develop commercial-route and regional transport strategies, and implement “transport on demand” under the Social Climate Fund.
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