Zatlers calls for sacking Saeima

RIGA - With less than one week to go before facing a re-election vote in parliament, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers stood before an expectant nation and delivered on Saturday night a historic speech decrying the tightening grip over government of the so-called oligarchs and the increasing impunity enjoyed by corrupt members of society as he called for the dissolution of Saeima.

In his address, Zatlers emphasized that the May 26th Saeima vote blocking the Corruption Prevention Bureau’s (KNAB) major case against MP Ainars Slesers “resounded like a siren, warning of a serious conflict between legislators and judicial powers. Saeima, in its vote, showed contempt for rule of law, and not for the first time - rejection of a prosecutor general nominated by the highest standing legal official was a precedent,” reports news agency LETA

Following a highly emotional nationwide address, President Zatlers announced that he is resorting to his Constitutional right, found in Paragraph 48, and proposes dissolving the 10th Saeima, placing the matter in the hands of the people.
Zatlers in his speech mentioned other “blemishes” including the “haggling for high offices, instead of thinking about the well-being of the people and their economic plight. Parliament has shown that it defends only its own personal interests,” said a president clearly disgusted with many elements in Latvian society’s elite.

“We see that Saeima feels comfortable in its atmosphere of lies, and this has strongly influenced the government, as its members look to see what someone outside the government will say,” the president said, possibly referring to Ventspils Mayor Aivars Lembergs’ (For Latvia and Ventspils) influence in decision-making.
Zatlers underlined that Latvia is successfully combating the economic crisis, and this is due to the Latvian people. “But many have suffered, salaries have been cut. In whose name are the people suffering, to add to the profit of oligarchs? So that rule of law becomes unimportant?”

Global media called the president’s decision to propose the dissolution of parliament “historic,” whilst at the same time warning of a political crisis ahead. “In one of the most historic speeches the small Baltic State has seen since it quit the former Soviet Union in 1991, President Zatlers said he wanted to give people the power to decide after they made big sacrifices in a recent recession,” the Reuters news agency wrote.
“His decision sets the Baltic state on course for a political crisis, just as the country has begun to recover from a recession caused by the 2008 global financial meltdown and only seven months after the last elections in October,” Reuters goes on to say.

The U.S. news agency Associated Press points out that Zatlers’ step “sets the stage for political turmoil in recession-scarred Latvia,” whilst German news agency DPA warns of a constitutional crisis.
French news agency AFP said that “Zatlers’ move was unprecedented, with advisers noting that no president has used the power since Latvia emerged as an independent republic in 1918.”
At the same time, AFP points out that the move marks a major political gamble for Zatlers, who is due to face a parliamentary vote on June 2 on a second four-year term in office.

“Since winning office in 2007, Zatlers has repeatedly urged lawmakers to do something to tackle rock-bottom public faith in politicians, notably amid the state’s deep economic crisis which sparked a biting austerity drive,” AFP goes on to say.
Zatlers said that he fully realizes that his move could spoil his re-election bid, with the vote coming up on June 2 in Saeima.
Latvia’s anti-corruption agency opened a probe against a number of unnamed officials on May 20, reported Bloomberg. Parliament on May 26 voted against a request from the prosecutor general to lift the immunity of Ainars Slesers, an opposition member of parliament and former transport minister, to allow a search of his home.

The vote’s result triggered the president’s response.
 Anti-corruption agents conducted searches at a number of companies and offices the previous week, including at companies affiliated with Lembergs and Saeima member Andris Skele (People’s Party). AirBaltic President Bertolt Flick is also under investigation for his role in an alleged funding scam with Slesers (see Nationwide page 3).

“The evidence in our possession gives reason to believe that public officials and officials holding a responsible position” may have participated in operating businesses and received dividends from secretly held shares in companies, the bureau said in a statement on its Web site the same day. It is also looking into possible bribery and bribe taking, according to the statement on May 26.

Slesers wasn’t mentioned in the bureau’s news release, which refers to an unidentified member of parliament who may have influenced decision-making at a number of companies and secretly held shares in others.
“What I can unequivocally say is that the facts that are mentioned do not correspond to the truth,” Slesers replied in comments broadcast on Latvian Television on May 26. “I’m not an owner of any of the businesses mentioned.”
Two candidates are running in the presidential elecion - current President Zatlers and ex-banker, now Saeima member Andris Berzins (Union of Greens and Farmers, ZZS). Zatlers has been nominated by the parliamentary groups of Unity (33 Saeima members) and For a Good Latvia (PLL, eight Saeima members).

Following Zatlers’ May 28 address, however, he has been losing support fast.
The president is elected by secret ballot with a majority of the votes of not less than 51 members of the Saeima. If in the first election round none of the candidates collects 51 votes, a second round will be held. If none of the candidates is voted for by a majority of Saeima members, another election round is held in which the candidate with the smallest number of votes is eliminated. The vote then focuses on the remaining one, and he still requires the 51 support votes.
If this fails, a new election will have to be called. Candidates for the next election are nominated no less than five days after the last election round.

Zatlers’ term in office ends on July 7.
The referendum on Zatlers’ motion to dissolve Saeima will be held on Saturday, July 23, reports the Central Election Commission. The 10th Saeima will be dismissed if one half of those going to the polls support the motion. If so, emergency elections would be held, no later than two months after Saeima is dismissed.