Aug 25
AleksEconomy, The Dombrovskis government, The Godmanis government
Historic photograph of the Baltic way taken near the border between Latvia and Lithuania
RIGA – When Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way, I couldn’t help but think about the puzzle that is the Baltic mentality.
Looking at sheer numbers, Latvia should have had a revolution a long time ago. The economy is expected to contract by the record-breaking 18 percent this year. The unemployment has reached 17 percent in the second three-month period. The only positive factor – the inflation – dropped to 2.5 percent last month from 17 percent last May. In hopes of getting a lifesaving loan from the international lenders, the government was forced to slash spending, lay off workers, close hospitals, schools, cut the police. It is performing the kind of tasks that does not make one Mr. Popular or get you re-elected. If this were France or Greece, thousands of angry people would have stormed palaces, rolled over vehicles, set anyone working for the government aflame.
Yet, it’s all quiet on the Baltic front. People go to their summer houses, eat barbecues, farm their their kitchen gardens, go fishing, go about their business. They appear to be disconnected from the slasher-government and apathetic. Of course, there was the January riot when several hundred people, angry at the government, hurled rocks and turned over police cars in the protest. Yet, that was under the previous government whose anthem of ineptitude and incompetence can be summed up in the phrase “Nasing Spešal“.
Whether the unemployed and bitter Latvians are capable to huddle together and withstand the cold and – very likely – expensive winter remains to be seen. However, judging by the few summer protests – against the closure of the Riga First Hospital, for example – it seems people in general feel distant from the government and apathetic about their future. Everyone cares about his or her own little corner of the universe, his own little fiefdom – nevermind the whole country.
The First City Hospital employees protested the closure of their hospital, fearing they would lose their jobs. Yet, no one protested against low quality and considerably high cost of health care in this country. We protest against closure of our schools, but we don’t demand schools produce smart, capable young people that are able to move this country forward.
We’re capable to be united against a foreign enemy, but we’re incapable of uniting for the sake of our country. The unity that fostered the Baltic independence 20 years ago has dissipated – not only among Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, but also among Latvians themselves. We lack vision and unity where we should take our country into the future, even though the current crisis provides many opportunities for sweeping and necessary reforms. Divided among ourselves, we’re bound to fall and be left behind as the backwater of the European Union.
Apr 29
AleksSociety, The Dombrovskis government
RIGA – This morning I got a call from a friend who works as a teacher. She sounded upset over the news reports that the government plans to slash up to 8,000 teacher jobs in the fall. That’s one-sixth of all the teachers in the country. I tried to calm her down, but at the same time pointed out that it appears the government has no other choice.
“They want riots?” my friend asked. A legitimate question following the teacher protest.
The friend works several jobs, trying to support herself, her daughter and the unemployed son-in-law. The son-in-law used to work in construction. The little jobs he gets now don’t pay well or on time. She tries to make ends meet by offering private lessons, but that means working six days a week with little relief or rest.
Now the government has announced it will cut jobs, following an audit. Diena this morning said that there’s one teacher for every seven students in Latvia. It’s definitely too many in a country where the population has been shrinking. At the same time, little is known about what criteria the government will be using to slash teacher’s jobs. What’s a good teacher – is the question of the day.
Mar 05
AleksThe Dombrovskis government
This is why Dombrovskishad a sad face when he walked out of the Riga Castle. This is his dilemma on his mind before Dombrovskis takes office:
If he makes those [budget] cuts, he could have riots on the streets. But if he doesn’t cut, the bailout won’t cover Latvia’s bills and this Baltic republic of just over two million people will go bankrupt.
Mar 04
AleksThe Dombrovskis government
Veiko Spolītis has the list of ministers in the new government.
Mar 03
AleksPolitics, The Dombrovskis government
The Baltic Features is baffled:
All the parties are up to the same horse trading to some extent, giving the lie that they care about much more than their own interests. The government gets doled out first, and then we’ll wonder if there’s anyone in the party that won a ministry that can actually do the job.
If all the rhetoric about national unity and sacrifice was worth a sou, Dombrovskis should have been able to ask: “Regardless of how many cabinet posts I give you, are you in or out?”
Mar 02
AleksParliament, Politics, The Dombrovskis government
RIGA – When Valdis Dombrovskis walked out of the presidential palace last week, he looked as if he had a world on his shoulders.
“Are you going to celebrate with a glass of champagne,” one Latvian journalist asked Dombrovskis.
“I won’t be celebrating with a glass of champagne because there is no reason – I’m sorry – to celebrate,” he said. “The situation in the country is very serious.”
The 37-year-old center-right member of the European Parliament was charged to fix the economic mess known as Latvia. And the situation is indeed very serious. The economy will shrink to the 2005 levels by the end of this year; the unemployment will rise; the budget will have to be cut; people will continue on their way to poverty. And no one wants to lead the government at this time. Even Dombrovskis made appearances to his party comrades with a young grim face, as if thinking, “what have I done?”
Latvian President Valdis Zatlers tapped Dombrovskis, the ex-finance minister from the New Era Party to form the 15th government since Latvia regained independence in 1991.
Dombrovskis will continue coalition talks this week, which will revolve around who will get what ministry in the new government (Suddenly the image of the outgoing PM Ivars Godmanis as the minister of agriculture appeared in my mind). The Civil Union, the Green Farmers, the People’s Party, the Fatherlanders along with a two-member Society for Different Politics appear to be on board, giving the new coalition 67 votes in the 100-member parliament.
In a line of predecessors, Dombrovskis stands out. He is the youngest appointee to the post in the post-Soviet Latvia. He has a sense of reaching out to voters. He would become the first prime minister who even has had his own Web page.
The government must be formed as quickly as possible because the time is running out. We have one important date that is not too far off.
It’s March 31.
First, the parliament has to pass the austerity measures worth of 5 percent of gross domestic product, touching practically every sphere of the budget. That means teachers, doctors, and even government support for mothers will get some cuts. Dombrovskis mentioned the only untouchables – the pensions. That is a lot of painful cuts of the budgetary flesh to be made in a short period of time by the young government. It’s bound to be unpopular unless Dombrovskis will be able to explain it to the people: why those cuts and not others. The new government also has an incentive to cut the budget quickly. It’s the next installment of the IMF-led 7.5 billion euro loan.
Without the loan, Dombrovskis said, the country is on the verge of bankruptcy with enough money to fund the work of the government until the middle of April.
March 31 also marks the deadline for the president’s ultimatum. With the new government, one could already make a case that the president now has a leeway enforcing his deadline. Forming the new government takes time. Delaying on the ultimatum also buys time for the president to make sure the referendum on snap elections – if such was to happen – falls on the same day as the June 6 municipal and euro parliament elections.
But for now, all we could wish Valdis Dombrovskis is the best of luck (and not the Irish kind). We’ll be watching the relatively-young educated European forming a new government that could possibly regain the public trust even without the snap elections.
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