Latvija in brief - 2011-02-10

Dozens of European lawmakers, including Latvian European Parliament Member Sandra Kalniete, have backed a drive to get a French city to remove a statue of Lenin erected last year, saying it insults the memory of the Soviet Union’s victims, reports AFP. Vytautas Landsbergis, who steered Lithuania’s split with Moscow in 1990, said raising a monument to the communist revolutionary… was deeply wrong. He warned against commemorating leaders simply due to their historical importance. The 3.3-meter bronze of Lenin - real name Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - was among several unveiled last August by controversial local leader Georges Freche, who died in October. He also erected monuments to Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and Franklin Roosevelt, and had one of Mao Zedong in the pipeline. Freche, in backing his idiotic idea, said the decision to “honor” Lenin and Mao was that their political legacy outweighed the bloodshed associated with the communist regime.

The average number of flu cases in the fourth week of January rose, according to Latvian Infectious Diseases Center (LIDC), reports LETA. The average number of flu cases is now 343 patients per 100,000 residents. This means that more than 7,700 people in Latvia are infected with the flu. The number of flu cases during the flu epidemic usually ranges from 400 to 500 per 100,000 residents, thus the current intensity of the flu is lower than the average, the head of LIDC’s Epidemiological Safety Department, Jurijs Perevoscikovs, said. However, the actual number of people infected with flu can be even higher since not all patients are hospitalized for monitoring and many of them barely feel its impact and do not visit their doctor. The flu has reached epidemic levels in eight cities - Jelgava, Rezekne, Jekabpils, Gulbene, Liepaja, Daugavpils, Valmiera and Riga.

The political association For A Good Latvia has split up, as businessmen, who had established the association, will not nominate their representatives for the For A Good Latvia board, says press secretary Girts Dripe, reports LETA. The businessmen have concluded that their basic goal has been reached - For A Good Latvia is represented in the 10th Saeima, but now it will be more convenient for them to tackle their problems without being members of a political association. Therefore, For a Good Latvia will now only include five political parties: People’s Party, Latvia’s First Party/Latvia’s Way, United Rezekne, For Ogre Region and Latgale’s Nation. The board of For a Good Latvia will be made up of these five parties’ respective chairmen - Andris Skele, Ainars Slesers, Jurijs Petkevics, Edvins Bartkevics and Mecislavs Veveris.