No indications of a change of situation on Riga City Council - Kirsis

RIGA - The distribution of power on the Riga City Council has not changed, Vilnis Kirsis (Unity), the leader of the city council’s opposition Unity group, said commenting last week’s split-up in the city council’s ruling coalition.

Kirsis said that the four council members who were expelled from the ruling Harmony group had pledged to keep supporting the ruling coalition with their votes. Kirsis also noted that the opposition only has 27 votes, which is not enough to make any difference.

The opposition councilor also reminded his promise not to build a coalition with members of the ruling coalition parties – Harmony and Honor to Serve Riga (GKR), so he does not deem it possible to partner up with the four councilors who have split off from Harmony.

Commenting on the suggestions made by Viesturs Zeps, head of the city council’s For Development/For group, that For Development/For might file a motion to oust the new Riga mayor Dainis Turlais (GKR), Kirsis said that the parties have decided to wait with their next move for now as there are still too many unknown factors at play.

As reported, the ruling coalition of Harmony and GKR split up after Turlais was elected the capital city’s new mayor last Thursday. Four Harmony members – vice mayor Vadims Baranniks, Valerijs Petrovs, Aleksejs Roslikovs and Vitalijs Dubovs – were expelled from the group for what has been described as “gross violations”.

That means that the city council’s ruling coalition, which used to have 32 votes, has now been left with 28 votes on the city council.