RIGA - At a Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way (LPP/LC) council meeting on Sept. 12, Riga's vice-mayor Ainars Slesers said that the Valdis Dombrovskis (New Era)-led government should "stop its bickering and come up with a specific program to bring the nation out of crisis." Otherwise, he warned, the LPP/LC will pull its support for Dombrovskis, and the government would collapse, reports news agency LETA.
Slesers said that the prime minister, instead of kowtowing to the international loan lenders and continuing with budget cuts, should sit down at the table with CEOs from Scandinavian banks, and tell them that the loans will be "written off." He said he believes these banks are responsible for recklessly granting housing loans to Latvians, which will never be re-paid, and the Scandinavian banks have to share the blame for Latvia's economic crisis.
The vice-mayor says it is also unacceptable that the International Monetary Fund insists on allocating a major part of the bail-out loan for stabilization of Latvia's financial sector. He would rather see the loan used to "warm up the economy."
Finance Minister Einars Repse (New Era) says that "in the current situation, government stability is crucial." He adds that Latvia's credit ratings "are already approaching the critical level. My conviction is that this government has to continue work until the next Saeima elections." The finance minister says he now waits for responsible action from the People's Party, and cooperation within the government to jointly work towards overcoming the crisis.
Slesers, who is LPP/LC co-chairman, noted that it may be more advantageous for his party to allow Dombrovskis' government "to struggle for one more year," after which LPP/LC would then "convincingly win the 10th Saeima election." However, this would be irresponsible, he considers, as the state would fall into an even deeper hole.
Slesers' solution to the economic crisis is to issue residency permits to people from third countries, those who would buy real estate in Latvia, and spend at least 300,000 euros which would go into a 'municipal fund,' which would then be used for economic development.
This, according to Slesers, will then revitalize the construction sector, resulting in completion of the many unfinished buildings that were started, many speculatively, at the height of the credit boom, and for which there is still little demand for. If Latvia manages to attract 1,000 affluent buyers, he reasons, the economy would receive hundreds of millions of euros; this would not be a loan to be repaid. His target investors are individuals from Russia and CIS. Another suggestion from Slesers is for closer cooperation with Belarus, where industry is developing "successfully."
Nonetheless, if necessary, the LPP/LC is ready to assume responsibility for the nation a year before the next elections, as it has "a plan how to bring Latvia out of the crisis," he promises.
Repse, in evaluating comments by Slesers on the government's stability, said that Slesers is "not a Cabinet minister and that he works for the Riga City Council, where he has all his chances to prove himself in tackling the economic crisis."
