The rocket. The young friendly Russian who speaks fluent Latvian. The Soviet-educated former corruption fighter.
These people are on the menu for the local elections less than a month away. The June 6 contest is about personalities more than about party platforms or programs. A giant Ainars Šlesers overlooks fast-moving crowds near the central train station in Rīga (as pictured above). Seeing the party ad from afar invokes warm images of The Dear Leader who would take care of his people at a time of the most severe economic crisis even before you can get close enough to read the money quote: “I won’t teach you how to save, I will help you make money.”
Šlesers stays true to his slogan. Since 2004, the state budget has not run a single surplus, spending more than it was raking in. The finance ministry’s data shows a 1.0 percent deficit in 2004, 0.8 percent deficit in 2005, 0.5 percent deficit in 2006, 1.3 percent deficit in 2007. Šlesers was not in charge of the state coffers, but his 2004 editorial certainly set the tone for spending, which brought Latvia on the verge of financial collapse.
“The Latvia’s First Party is not afraid to say that the deficit-free budget is not the end in itself,” he said. “The budget ought to serve the development of the country, not as an answer to the World Bank.(…) We are not afraid to take on a risk to say that in the Latvian situation one should quit warning about some kind of economic overheating, we ought to push the pedal to the metal.”
We know how that turned out. But now, Šlesers is trying to use the same principle to win this elections. And it seems to be working. The popularity of the Latvia’s First Party has more than doubled in April compared to the month earlier. Almost every fourth citizen in Rīga is willing to vote for Šlesers as the mayor of Riga, according to a survey published this morning.
And yet, voters don’t get to elect the mayor. Mayor gets elected by the city council. And a party that wins most seats on the city council gets to order the tune.
For the most part though, individual personalities are driving the vote in this election.