Oops, he did it!

As I already said the simultaneous wrangling with the Anti money laundering law and governmental commission discussing the suitability of Mr Loskutovs for the post of the head of the Anti Corruption Agency (KNAB) looks suspicious. Linda Mūrniece (New Era party-JL) in her blog today even argues that the People's Party (TP) and Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) have struck a deal. According to Mūrniece, if ZZS would agree to topple Mr Loskutovs, then TP would torpedo the Anti money laundering bill again on July 2, 2008. The law must be passed until the set date by the presidential decision not to sign the dysfunctional bill into the law two days ago. Thus, the political climate is getting unusually hot just prior the Midsummer celebrations in Latvia.

An oil was added to the fire by the Latvian Minister of Defense Vinets Veldre yesterday evening. The latter person is veterinarian by his education and became famous lately for openly lobbying controversial decision to establish an elite cavalry unit in the Latvian army. The reason why the cavalry issue became controversial is the fact that at times when economy is experiencing total slowdown the Minister of Defense found it reasonable enough to establish the cavalry unit and so lobbied his own horse breeding business.

But the reason I speak about controversial decisions of the previously mentioned minister is not a cavalry, or Ministry of Defense still funding sports clubs in Latvia but the speech of Minister Veldre yesterday. Like a lightening from the sky came the announcement of the Minister Veldre "about the decision of the governmental commission investigating job performance of Mr Loskutovs fundamentally made already, thus the reason why the commission will sit until next Tuesday is the fact that the decision should be made judicially sound. Minister Veldre (TP) "found" the issue of Mr Loskutovs "thus important", that instead of attending the NATO Defense Ministers meeting this week he delegated ministry officials to attend it instead.

Oops, and another member of governing majority did it! I am actually getting agitated about the childish mistakes members of governing coalition make (almost willing to shout out loudly douze point:). Luckily the PM backed off from such an announcement and asked the government members to decide at 2pm today, what shall they do with the Minister of Defense after all? The PM rather customarily reflecting the governance style of the present "pol. elite" announced that the Minister of Defense would stay in the commission investigating job performance of the KNAB head, because they do not see any breech of principles or conflicts of interest. Also the Head of the investigative Commission Prosecutor General Mr Maizītis asked the PM not to hurry with conclusions especially after Minister Veldre controversial announcement. Thus, Mr Maizītis asked for more time to investigate the substance of job performance of Mr Loskutovs and it was extended until next Thursday. Anyway, here one may simply conclude that principle of due process is not followed properly.

Therefore, one issue is clear. Every such clumsy and outright stupid announcement bypassing the rules and procedures that were previously agreed upon make the Latvian civil society more and more convinced that the "present political elite" is simply bankrupt. And all this happens during the day when Irish Taoiseach announced THE NEWS - majority of the 40% of eligible Irish voters said NO to the Lisbon Treaty. There is something to contemplate about now in most of the EU capitals, and we will definitely hear political elite's reflections next week after the heads of states convene in Brussels. The majority of the Latvian government members in the meantime are more concerned about their own benefits rather than the future of the continent, thus the never ending saga with the head of the Anti Corruption agency, isn't it funny:)