Political scientist Juris Rozenvalds announced that the coalition of the Riga City Council has no other options than to talk to each other and put disagreements aside. Otherwise, extraordinary elections of the Riga City Council will have to be called.
Political scientist Juris Rozenvalds announced that the coalition of the Riga City Council has no other options than to talk to each other and put disagreements aside. Otherwise, extraordinary elections of the Riga City Council will have to be called.
He pointed out that in the Riga city council, “the squabbling is no joke”, but the coalition has no other option but to talk to each other and forgive the mutual insults. A new coalition without the “Progressive/Par” faction is technically possible, but it is most likely not an alternative, Rozenvalds believes.
The political scientist assumed that in the end the mutual insults will be softened and pushed aside, because otherwise it is difficult to find political logic – what exactly do the political forces want to achieve.
In Rosenvald’s view, there are two options – political parties resume friendship, put an end to disagreements and continue to work together, or hold extraordinary elections. The political scientist said that everyone is afraid of snap elections, but others are more afraid.
From the current Riga City Council coalition, the “New Unity”, “National Union/Latvijas Reģionu apiviņa” and “Code for Riga” could be the most afraid of the emergency elections, while the “Progressives” could hope to increase the number of their mandates, the political scientist admitted. .
Also, in Rozenvald’s assessment, the winner of the extraordinary elections could be the party “Latvia First” led by Ainars Šleser, who has experience in managing the Riga City Council.
As reported, after the conflict over the evaluation of the work of the Department of Transport, the ruling coalition of the Riga City Council has split, as a result of which Riga Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis (PP) announced his resignation and officially lost his position, and Vice Mayor Vilnis Ķirsis (JV) became the Acting Chairman of the Riga City Council.
Stakis’ previous coalition partners of the Riga City Council “Jaunā vienotība” (JV), “Nacionalā apiviėna/Latvijas Rģionu apiviėna” (NA/LRA) and “Kods Rīgai” (KR) have decided to take the initiative to negotiate the formation of a new coalition, but from “Par/ Progressives” (PP) expects a retraction of, in their words, “false statements”.
