THOUSANDS OF Latvians have protested against the malign influence of tycoons in politics, after the Baltic state’s president was ousted following a dispute with MPs over the issue.
More than 6,000 Latvians rallied in the capital, Riga, just days after parliament voted to replace head of state Valdis Zatlers, who sought to dissolve the chamber for its refusal to strip legal immunity from an MP suspected of involvement in a corruption scandal.
A majority of MPs voted to replace Mr Zatlers with Andris Berzins, a millionaire former banker with relatively little political experience, in what many Latvians saw as yet another shadowy back-room deal cooked up by a self-serving political elite.
Surveys suggest an overwhelming majority of Latvians supported Mr Zatlers’ decision to hold a referendum on dissolving parliament and the vote is still expected to be held next month. If the public approves the motion, a general election will be held later in the summer.
The demonstrators demanded cleaner politics and an end to the influence wielded by oligarchs in Latvia, where unemployment is static at about 17 per cent as it struggles to recover from an economic crisis that forced it to seek a €7.5 billion emergency loan.
The demonstrators’ chants echoed those that greeted Mr Berzins after his controversial appointment, when he was forced to cut short a walk in Riga’s old town as the assembled crowd called him a “puppet”, demanded that he step down and shouted: “No to oligarchs!”
Prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis, whose centre-right Unity party supported the president in the vote, said afterwards that a majority of MPs had “not respected the public demand for a policy that is free of the oligarchs’ influence and has punished Valdis Zatlers for his courage”. For his part, Mr Berzins insists he is not influenced by any businessmen, will seek to root out corruption and will not block the planned referendum on dissolving parliament.
Mr Zatlers is now expected to join the Unity party and may help it strengthen its position if early elections are held in the coming months.
“You can see the parties that blocked Zatlers from re-election getting some payback when parliamentary elections occur,” said Aidan Manktelow of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“It all seems to be coming to a head now after a long period of some people trying to get the oligarchs out of politics.”
