in Latvia Yesterday, 20:52 Thursday at At 11:00 a.m. a meeting of the representatives of the Riga City Council coalition will take place

Representatives of the party “Jaunā vienotība” (JV), “National Association/Union of Latvian Regions” (NA/LRA), “Kods Rīgai” (KR) and “Par/Progresīvie” (PP) will take part in the discussions.

Previously, such a meeting was planned for July 5, but did not take place. As informed in the Riga city council, the JV, NA/LRA and KR MPs invite the PP faction to a meeting about the future work.

Simultaneously with the invitation to the meeting, the negotiators remind that until Wednesday evening a public retraction from PP was expected, but not received, for the previously expressed “false and unfounded” statements about the political interest of the previous coalition partners, cover-up of uneconomic actions, treason and other alleged actions. which have appeared in the public rhetoric of PP representatives.

Also, an assurance was awaited that an objective and comprehensive examination of the alleged violations found in the Department of Transport would not be hindered.

“Considering that the PP is the largest faction in the Riga City Council, the representatives of the three political forces want to listen to the proposals of the representatives of this faction on how to arrive at a coalition in the shortest possible time, which can continue to work in Riga to the full extent of the mandate allocated for this term,” say the organizers of the negotiations, expressing a united opinion that the majority of state-minded political forces should work in good faith and collegiality in the next Riga City Council coalition, but any action that would lead to emergency elections in Riga is currently unfounded and undesirable.

Mārtiņš Kossovičs, head of the PP faction of the Riga City Council, stated that the discussions about the purpose of the PP going to the negotiations and whether they will go at all have not yet taken place. They are planned for Thursday morning. At the same time, he noted that “in politics, you still have to talk” and the PP has not avoided discussions before either.

As one of PP’s goals for Thursday’s meeting of coalition representatives, Kossovič mentioned finding out how serious the future cooperation could be, considering that, in his opinion, the coalition is to blame for the resignation of the mayor of Riga.

Despite the sharp mutual insults, the coalition partners of the former Riga City Council are ready to discuss the possible continuation of cooperation, the politicians said.

The leader of the PP faction, Mārtiņš Kossovičs, confirmed that he is ready to meet and participate in the negotiations.

Vice-mayors Vilnis ķirsis (JV) and Edvards Ratnieks (NA/LRA) also expressed such determination, but the politicians refrained from predicting what the outcome of these negotiations might be.

The current coalition partners of the Riga City Council, JV, NA/LRA and KR have decided to take the initiative for negotiations on the formation of a new coalition, but they expect PP to withdraw, in their words, the “false statements”.

Riga Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis (PP) resigned because he could no longer take responsibility for the decisions of the Riga City Council.

In Stakis’ view, his former coalition partners have actually created another majority together with “Saskaņa”, “Honor to serve Riga” and “Latvijas įvėdas” and by making decisions in other cabinets, not together with the PP faction.

This is confirmed by the vote on the creation of a new investigative commission to investigate possible violations in the Department of Transport, in which the former coalition partners voted together with “Saskaņu”. Consequently, the mayor of Riga can no longer take responsibility for the council’s decisions and has decided to resign.

On June 16, the Acting Director of the Transport Department Jānis Vaivods and the Head of the Transport Infrastructure Administration Andrejs Urtāns were suspended from their positions for the duration of the investigation of the disciplinary case by the order of the Executive Director of the City of Riga Jānis Lange.

The officials were suspended after receiving the whistleblower’s report and subsequent service inspection. During the inspection, significant violations were found, which indicate illegal and uneconomic behavior in the street asphalt restoration works carried out by the department.

This issue has shed light on the disagreements between the coalition partners “Jauno jenetivu” (JV) and “Par/Progressivie”, with the parties differing in their opinions, which should be investigated for possible violations.

On June 29, after several hours of disputes and accusations, the Riga City Council supported the draft decision initiated by JV on the establishment of a new commission to investigate possible violations in the Department of Transport. The debate was so intense that some MPs assumed that these disagreements could lead to emergency elections of the Riga City Council.

The draft decision submitted by the JV and supported by the council envisages instructing the executive director of the city of Riga to replace the investigator of the disciplinary case, the advisor to the executive director of the city of Riga, Māris Knokas, with a commission for examining disciplinary cases. It is planned to include officials from the central administration of the Riga City Council in the commission, namely the Legal Department, the City Development Department and the Document Management and Council Support Department.

In order to ensure the transparency of the process, it is planned to instruct the commission with the decision of the city council to attract representatives from the Ministry of Transport, the society “Sabiedrība par otstrībību – Delna”, the Latvian Building Engineers’ Union, the Alliance of Riga Neighborhoods as observers with advisory rights.

JV drew attention to the fact that by entrusting the inspection to the office staff of the executive director of Riga City Council, Jānis Lange, there is a risk of a conflict of interest. This is caused by the fact that in April of this year, the suspended officials of the Department of Transport were instructed by the order of the executive director to carry out road and access road surface restoration works within the framework of road maintenance contracts, which were recognized as economically unprofitable in another order of the executive director issued in June of this year on the initiation of a disciplinary case.