RIGA -”Weekends are for resting and that’s what I intend to do,” the former speaker of the parliament Indulis Emsis once told journalists who wanted to know his reaction to the president’s actions back in 2007. Back then, on one April Saturday, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga stopped a legislation from coming into force, triggering a referendum.
The Friday evening’s announcement by the People’s Party – the largest party in the coalition – transformed the relaxing weekend into a working weekend for the failing but still-ruling coalition.
Reminiscent of Emsis were the words of the leader of the Fatherlanders in the parliament this Saturday. “Common sense tells you that whatever it is, dear friends, but we don’t have to talk about the government’s demise on Saturday and Sunday,” said Maris Grinblats.
But with the ship sinking, the gloves came off this weekend.
The blame game for the economic and political disaster has spilled from the Internet sites and TV screens. Anticipating the forthcoming snap elections, the Green Farmers threatend to pull out of the coalition, if the government today doesn’t fulfil the farmers demands for subsidies and loan guarantees. And it no longer mattered that Martins Roze from the Green Farmers has been working as a minister of agriculture since 2002, failing to meet the farmers demands way before the current coalition became the guarantor of stability.
The punchline to the weekend of bickering gave the Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis who appeared on TV last night. I expected Godmanis resign. But instead, he blamed everyone in his coalition for fleeing from responsibility for tough decisions the unpopular coaltion had to make in the last several months.
Like little kids, they care more about their own warm seats than their own country and their own people. I don’t care at all for such patriotism from the parties of the ethnic Latvians that combine this ruling coalition. In that patriotism and fearmongering, you can wrap yourself in the Latvian flag when it is beneficial for your political future. But once the times get tough, they feel leaving people behind, just to make sure they can find their warm places once the election hit. None of the ruling coalition can run on its record. They have nothing to show for themselves, except for rising unemployment and depleting wages.
Soon, they will be blaming Russia – for economic mistakes, for transit downturn, for cold air the country sent to us this weekend.
For the first time, though, it was refreshing to hear Godmanis offering some criticism to the coalition partners, including his fellow chairman the minister of transport, Ainars Slesers.
Cutting wages and laying people off are never popular. They are especially unpopular when it’s done by the government that discredited itself in the eyes of the population.
For now, the government is continuing its work. The decision on the farmer subsidies may break the coaltion even today. On Wednesday – if the government lasts this long – Godmanis faces the vote of no-confidence in the parliament. Following a busy weekend, the political elite faces a busy week ahead.
Image of Ivars Godmanis before the TV broadcast taken from diena.lv
