Extremist senility in Riga

  • 2001-09-06
The nomination of the former Interfront activist Tatyana Zhdanok as executive director of one of Riga's districts is perceived as a step too far for the leftists.

A former anti-independence activist, now furious campaigner for the rights of Russian-speakers in Latvia, Zhdanok's appointment may please leading radicals from the Russian speaking minority. But for many who supported and fought for the country's independence it would seem like a spit in the face.

Zhdanok, while displaying the old menu of communist beliefs and Soviet-style thinking, has added some Euroskeptic spice to please her voters. She has no administrative experience. Her fellow Interfront leaders Anatolijs Aleksejevs and Sergejs Dimanis have left the political stage. Aleksejevs, a former engineer and one time leader of Interfront, has now recovered his family's properties in Riga and is a respectable landlord. Dimanis has quit politics as well.

But to imagine any of that notable trio taking executive office in an independent Latvia they fought so passionately against is too terrible a nightmare.

In fact, Zhdanok's nomination is the leftist parties' biggest mistake yet. With parliamentary elections approaching in a year such actions can only consolidate the right-wing, nationalist forces and discredit the leftists' main partners, the Social Democrats.

The popularity rating of Riga mayor, the Social Democrat Gundars Bojars, already took a steep dive in August - not a consequence of Zhdanok's nomination as the poll was probably carried out earlier. But it signals a trend which may continue and the right-wing For Fatherland and Freedom Party, which split from the Social Democrats, may be the biggest winner. The Social Democrats' and Fatherlands' electorates overlap because it was more disillusioned voters of a nationalist tendency who supported the Social Democrats in the municipal elections in March.

So now voters may realize that the old, corrupt crabs which dominate the national government might have been their best choice in March. Next year, voters will probably have some fresh fish to choose as well, with the arrival of a newcomer to the political scene. Latvia's Central Bank head Einars Repse is seen as a cure for the ills of corruption, poor tax collection and sloppy state service.

So, if the nomination of Zhdanok was a blow to the current City Council coalition, her appointment would be a death sentence to any party which voted for her, except, of course, her own.