Political games should be set aside, information about vaccination should be distributed also in Russian - Harmony

RIGA - Politicians should put their "dirty games" aside and distribute information about vaccination against Covid-19 also in Russian, said Saeima presidium member, MP Andrejs Klementjevs (Harmony).

He said that the ruling New Unity and For Development/For politicians are aware of the necessity to communicate these issues also to the Russian-speaking population, but the New Conservative Party and the National Alliance are against it. The opposition Harmony party has been speaking about it long ago, and also Health Ministry's officials have come up with such a proposal.

"Officials from the Health Ministry proposed long ago to start a campaign in the native language of the people who have no higher education, who do not understand the nuances of the Latvian language. We are not talking about the threat to the official language, we are talking about humane attitude to people who are not informed," said Klementjevs.

In his opinion, the informative campaign about vaccination does not reach about one fourth of the population due to the language barrier, therefore the situation is catastrophic.

As reported, in order to promote vaccination of the Russian-speaking population, there is a proposal to soften the official language regulations during the state of emergency and address the Russian-speaking population with personalized letters in Russian, said Vaccination Project Department head Eve Juhnevica.

"At present, in line with the legislation, we may not personalize and send people materials that are not in the official language," said Health Minister Daniels Pavluts (For Development/For).

The government held a heated debate on this aspect as Transport Minister Talis Linkaits (New Conservative Party), Justice Minister Janis Bordans (New Conservative Party) and Culture Minister Nauris Puntulis (National Alliance) were against it.