President issues ultimatum to Parliament

  • 2009-01-14
  • TBT Staff

The president said that he would dissolve Parliament if his demands were not met. (Photo courtesy of the president's office)

RIGA 's LatvianPresident Valdis Zatlers has issued an ultimatum to the parliament, saying hewill dissolve the legislature if does not agree to a series of constitutionalamendments that would give the people more control over the government.

Zatlers issued the ultimatum in response to the riots thattore through Riga's OldTown on Tuesday, leaving numerousrioters and police officers injured and causing thousands of euros in damages.The riots followed a massive protest calling for the dissolution of Parliament.

"The main thing right now is to look at the reasons as to whypeople gathered in Dome Square to express their views. The main reasonis that trust in the government and in government officials hascollapsed catastrophically. The Saeima (Latvian parliament) and the Cabinet ofMinisters have lost links with the voters. I have said on severaloccasions in the past that trust can be regained only if specificthings are done," Zatlers said.

The president said that Parliament would have until March 31to appease three of his demands. He said the demands were formed in response tothe people's lack of confidence in the government.

The first demand was that the parliament passes amendmentsto the constitution giving people the right to directly dissolve thelegislature. He said that he would submit the final version of his proposals 'swhich would make Latvia the only country in the EU where people could directly dissolve parliament 'swithin one week.

The second demand was that Parliament amend the law onelections to eliminate the practice of election tickets being headed by asingle figurehead and to outlaw the practice of Parliamentarians switchingparties between elections.

The third demand was for the parliament to create asupervisory board to oversee the country's economic recovery plan and thespending of the 7.5 billion euro loan recently secured by the country.

The president also said that the government needs to submita reorganization plan within one week and called for the creation of a"reconciliation government." He demanded that the government appoint a new headto the anti-corruption bureau 's which has gone without leadership for months 'sas soon as possible.