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| Europe |
| Latvian authorities declared war on the mayor who wants to protect Russians |
| 2023-09-22 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Viktor Lavreninko [REGNUM] This year in Latvia, the virtual collapse of the opposition party “Consent” took place, which a year ago had the largest faction in parliament and consolidated the votes of the majority of local Russians. After the total loss of the parliamentary elections in October last year, the party leadership was mired in internal conflicts. As a result, people fled en masse from Harmony, having lost faith that this political force, to whose leadership the former “Russian mayor” of Riga Nil Ushakov returned , would at least to some extent defend their interests. One of its most authoritative representatives, the mayor of the city of Rezekne, Alexander Bartashevich , who has held his post since 2009, tried to save the party. On January 27, a congress of Harmony members was to take place. However, Bartashevich said that delegates from regional organizations controlled by him would not go there, and he himself was ready to take over the leadership of the party. Dialogue with the former leaders did not work out: the rebellious mayor was expelled from the party. But when leaving, Alexander Bartashevich managed to loudly slam the door goodbye. About 120 party members left Harmony , and at the beginning of April the founding congress of the regional party “Together for Latvia”, founded by Bartashevich, took place. The program of the new political force could not help but alert the Latvian authorities: it mentions the creation of a society free from ethnic discrimination and the return of the right to study in their native language to the local Russian population. And already in August, part of the deputies of the Rezekne City Assembly organized a second attempt to overthrow Bartashevich. The mayor was accused of failing to cope with his responsibilities: the municipality does not have enough money to cover all expenses this year. Five deputies submitted a request to remove Bartashevich. They justified this step by the fact that the mayor does not analyze his mistakes, and therefore there is no confidence that he is “able to lead the city out of the financial crisis . ” However, the impeachment failed: five voted “for”, seven voted “against”. One deputy did not participate in the meeting. A similar distribution of votes was observed in previous votes on this issue. Here you need to keep in mind that Bartashevich at one time inherited a deindustrialized city, which he himself once talked about in an interview with IA Regnum . Having lost the industry of the Soviet period plundered in the 90s, Rezekne barely survived in the modern Latvian reality, gradually losing population. Recently, the city suffered a new blow, which it had to share with the whole of Latvia - after being deprived of direct access to cheap Russian energy, costs for literally everything increased sharply. Trying to soften the consequences of this blow, the far-sighted Bartashevich began to transfer Rezekne to alternative energy sources ahead of time. On September 1, the Rezekne City Council approved the financial stabilization plan. Among the projects that the municipality plans to complete are a recreational center, a business cluster, the reconstruction of one street and the renovation of one kindergarten. At the same time, it is planned to cancel funding for most sports and cultural events, reduce costs for street lighting, optimize (read - reduce) the network of schools, and reduce the number of municipal employees. The main goal of the process is to obtain a stabilization loan in the amount of 6 million euros. But while Alexander Bartashevich was trying to “steer out” and bring the city out of a state of financial instability, he was stabbed in the back by some of the city’s politicians. Since it was not possible to overthrow the mayor with the votes of local government deputies, the government had to get involved directly and remove Bartashevich by ministerial decree. At the beginning of September, the Ministry of Regional Development raised the issue of removing the inconvenient mayor. Mayor Rezekne noted that the ministry requested documentation on investment projects that worsened the city's budget. “But there are no such projects,” Bartashevich said. According to him, all implemented investment plans will bring income to the city. The politician also repeatedly mentioned that the Ministry of Finance never gave any response to Rezekne’s request for a loan. According to him, the Ministry of Finance, if it does not act in accordance with the law and the financial situation of the municipality worsens, “will have to answer.” Mayor Rezekne emphasized that for now the financial problems the city is experiencing “are only a minor difficulty” and that “after the situation stabilizes, everything will be in order, we just need to rebuild a little.” In a conversation with Latvian Radio, Bartashevich said that there would be no need to stabilize the municipal budget if the Ministry of Finance considered the municipality’s applications for loans, which it has every right to apply for. The mayor believes that he governed the city entrusted to him quite conscientiously: “So far I do not see evidence that I am guilty of anything. There are no arguments required by law. At the moment we are preparing and next week we will adopt more changes to the budget - to save 1.3 million euros, and then redistribute them accordingly.” He emphasized that the government is deliberately putting a spoke in the city’s wheels instead of providing support. As a result, the Minister of Regional Development, Maris Springuks, decided to simply remove Bartashevich from his post. The irony is that this decision was made by a person who was in the status of a “political dead man” - the government, of which the minister was a member, was living its last days. Springjuks rolled out an additional “trump card” by accusing the mayor of a “possible conflict of interest . ” The fact is that at one time the Rezekne self-government entered into agreements with the construction company Latgalija, which is owned by members of the mayor’s family. However, since Springjuks left his post, the final verdict on the fate of the mayor of Rezekne will be made by the new minister - Inga Berzina . She has already said that she will first wait for the conclusion of the State Audit Office on Bartashevich’s activities. And on September 21, members of the “Together for Latvia” party held a rally in Rezekne in support of the mayor. Related: Latvia: 2023-09-16 'Empty shelves with absolutely no books': Students, parents question school board's library weeding process Latvia: 2023-09-14 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: September 13th, 2023 Latvia: 2023-09-12 'Three Seas' summit: they didn’t have time to accept Ukraine, and Zelensky threatens the EU with court |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Every proper-thinking western person will be so outraged when Russians occupy the Baltics! |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-09-22 02:22 |