Sprudzs calls some politicians ‘pitiful’

RIGA - In an interview in the June 17 issue of the daily Diena, Environmental Protection and Regional Development Minister Edmunds Sprudzs (Reform Party) said that “some Saeima MPs are pitiful people, who answer to anonymous bosses,” referring to the reaction to his proposal to revoke mandates for local councilmen if a criminal process is started against them.

Sprudzs notes that the proposed amendments to the law in this regard, as drawn up in the bill, remain intact, except for one key point: they will not pertain to pending prosecution, only to future cases. “This I see as an alarming sign of the parliament’s weakness,” he opines.

Sprudzs denies that his initiative is in fact a personal vendetta against Ventspils Mayor Aivars Lembergs. “I have no relationship with him whatsoever, neither hostile, nor harmonious. But a local government leader who blatantly ignores regulations and plays the government for a fool, this I will not tolerate,” the minister declared.