Latvians are angry 's and for good reason. They have, after all, the worst leadership in the European Union. The irony is that they are the ones who elected the current Parliament and coalitional government, and now they want to bequeath themselves the constitutional right to dissolve the legislature (and thus the government as well). None of this stacks up logically. Yet, if the experts' predictions bear out, and economic hardships exacerbate throughout the summer, there's a good chance that disgruntled Latvians will, out of their discontent, successfully amend the Satversme.
On April 11 the Central Election Commission announced that some 215,000 registered voters had stepped forward to sign onto a petition to change Articles 78 and 79 of the constitution so that voters would be empowered to dissolve the legislature via a referendum. That's approximately 65,000 more signatures than necessary. This is even more impressive considering the lengths to which voters went to locate the few remote signature-gathering precincts and stand in the long lines. This bespeaks of determination.
After a short audit of the signatures, the amendments, worded under the guidance of former Constitutional Court Chairman Aivars Endzins, will be sent to the president. Valdis Zatlers, in turn, will pass them along to Parliament for a vote. And since there is a popsicle's chance in perdition that lawmakers will bestow the electorate the right to sack them, the amendments will, when all is said and done, be put to a referendum, most likely toward the end of summer. For that to succeed, more than half of all registered voters must say "ja" to the amendments. Again, factoring in growing consumer hardships, this cannot be ruled out.
Which is most unfortunate. The amendments are misguided, and unnecessary. Their emotional component, to be sure, is understandable, but in their dissatisfaction with rotten governance Latvia's voters are essentially trying to upset the constitutional balance. Instead of directing their wrath at a specific government, the amendment-makers want to target all governments 's future and present. Nowhere in the European Union does the electorate have the right to call for referenda dissolving the legislature. And understandably so. Such a "people power" system would be perennially dysfunctional, susceptible to the PR machinery of opposition parties eager to throw out the lot. An endless cycle of signature-collecting drives and referenda.
Having said that, it should be stressed that Latvia's constitution could use some fine-tuning 's i.e., a check on Parliament, whose quality is shamelessly unprofessional. A more logical proposal would be to a) make the president popularly elected, and b) give the president the right to disband Parliament without the need for a referendum and risking his/her own neck, as is currently the case.
Also, Latvia's voters need to wake up. Their insouciance in October 2006, when they showed up in droves to re-elect the ruling coalition of three parties that are utterly incapable of anything other than advancing their own, oligarchic business interests, has come back to haunt them. Media at the time were brimming with substantial evidence why not to support the People's Party, the Greens and Farmers Union and the Latvia's Way/Latvia's First Party union, but few heeded the warnings. Now they want to undo the damage by altering the constitution in the wrong way.
