Days of serfdom are over

RIGA - In an announcement issued on Sept. 9, the ex-president and leader of Zatlers’ Reform Party (ZRP), Valdis Zatlers, called the Unity alliance “schemers,” reports LETA. Commenting on what Unity’s leader, Solvita Aboltina, said in an interview on Latvian State Radio (LR) that morning, Zatlers pointed out that watching the distribution of official posts after the previous Saeima elections, it was obvious that “being able to plot, slander, and publicly express a negative opinion about the other party members was more important within Unity than the candidates’ professionalism and suitability for the job.”

“I have never been good at scheming and that is one of the reasons why I decided not to join Unity, and create a new party instead, in which I would start from scratch,” explained Zatlers. “I have never felt strong in these areas, and I have no doubt that, in case I had joined Unity, I too, whether I like it or not, would have to participate in such games.”
Aboltina’s statements have more than once made Zatlers think that, in her opinion, Unity “owns” part of the Latvian voters that ZRP intends to “take away.”

“I would like to remind Mrs. Aboltina that serfdom was abolished in Latvia a while ago, and that we live in a free county, where people can choose their own future and give their votes to parliament representatives they trust most,” stressed Zatlers.
During the interview on Latvian State Radio, Aboltina mentioned ZRP as Unity’s closest possible cooperation partner because their party program is the most similar to Unity’s. She did, however, go on to criticize ZRP’s ministerial candidates, saying that they are “incompetent in their spheres.” Despite that, “In politics it must be possible to work together, and when creating the coalition, we will have to understand on what compromises we are going to create the government,” said Aboltina.

“We need stable development, which can only be achieved by a stable government,” she added. “Latvian voters are divided, while Harmony Center is uniting theirs.”