Yesterday Latvian president's harsh evaluation of the Latvian parliament job performance was somewhat surprising. I do not think that incumbent president's words were major factor behind the decision of the Saeima defense, internal affairs and corruption prevention commission to vote down ill famous amendmends of Vilnis - Edvīns Bresis (ZZS) in the Law preventing money laundering and terrorism financing in Latvia. After all the same Saeima commission (J. Dalbiņš, J. Dobelis, A. Latvkovskis, V. Lācis, I. Klementjevs, A. Mirskis, L. Mūrniece, D. Staķe, D. Turlais) already voted down exactly the same amendments prior the previos voting on June 11. Funny enough, regardless of negative voting of the Seaima commission, changes of Mr Bresis stipulated that legalisation of illegal means were suitable to his Godfather in the town of Ventspils, and parliamentary majority gang still voted AYE! If the parliamentary majority gangsta members voted AYE once, I would not be surprised if they would vote AYE again on July 17. Lets wait and see:)
Updated
Latest Eurobarometer poll was just published. As if to prove why Latvian MP's love money laundering and Latvian public is sick and tired of their governing institutions the data is just there! Trust in Latvian Parliament has declined to 12% (-4) support and that puts it in same league with Bulgaria, Lithuania and Italy. Trust for the government has declined to 15%(-4) and that puts it in same league with Italy and Hungary. In comparison Estonian parliament support runs at 36% (-10) and the government at 56% (-6). How strange it is to realize that majority of Latvian citizens still trust institutions of the EU (46%= -4) more than their own institutions. But comparing with the similar results in Estonia (69%=+2) and Lithuania (62% = +3) one should worry about the growing scepticism of Latvian electorate, because it has becoe the most Euro sceptic in the EU today!
The illegally elected parliament in Latvia poisons institutions of the representative democracy in Latvia. Such poisonous acts disorient Latvian electorate and the faster voters will get rid of corrupt MP's the better.
Showing posts with label Eurobarometer 69. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eurobarometer 69. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Second signature campaign is over
Less than a year later after the signature campaign against the virtual coup d'etat in Latvia (government changing security laws on the last day of 2006), there is almost as identical number of signatures collected as in April 2008. While in May 2007 there were 212 000 signatures, this year there are about 213 000 signatures collected in order to initiate constitutional amendments.
After a week another signature collection campaign would start and that one will be about amendments in pension laws. Initiators of this campaign wanted to hold the signature collection campaign simultaneously with the campaign that successfully ended yesterday. Nevertheless, Latvian political "elite" was scared to loose their perks. Therefore they thought that while keeping those two campaigns apart there would not be quorum for initiation of at least one referendum. Whilst doing it "our responsible" leaders made Latvian taxpayers to pay additional LVL 570 000 (its the sum one signature collection campaign costs). Democracy is expensive regime indeed, but its worth to pay such sums knowing that gradually it will allow us to get rid of inefficient "governors". Thus there would be no need for addition and symbolically annual 570 000Ls expenses. I hope that one day there would be a chance to have MP's who would legislate and not just continue their talking shop and travel to exotic countries without knowledge and understanding that they travel for the need of civitas and not just ego or oligarchia.
If one looks into Eurobarometer data then one may find reasons for Latvian public making referendum already second year in a row. I made a small research last year, and compared support for the government & parliament in Estonia, EU (an average), Latvia and Lithuania. I made the table only from YES answers. Undecided voters are fluctuating from 3-5%, thus the rest you may calculate yourself are representing NO's. Number 1 displays result of the spring poll and the second row (without a number) displays the autumn poll.
Q: Do you trust your government? YES answers
After a week another signature collection campaign would start and that one will be about amendments in pension laws. Initiators of this campaign wanted to hold the signature collection campaign simultaneously with the campaign that successfully ended yesterday. Nevertheless, Latvian political "elite" was scared to loose their perks. Therefore they thought that while keeping those two campaigns apart there would not be quorum for initiation of at least one referendum. Whilst doing it "our responsible" leaders made Latvian taxpayers to pay additional LVL 570 000 (its the sum one signature collection campaign costs). Democracy is expensive regime indeed, but its worth to pay such sums knowing that gradually it will allow us to get rid of inefficient "governors". Thus there would be no need for addition and symbolically annual 570 000Ls expenses. I hope that one day there would be a chance to have MP's who would legislate and not just continue their talking shop and travel to exotic countries without knowledge and understanding that they travel for the need of civitas and not just ego or oligarchia.
If one looks into Eurobarometer data then one may find reasons for Latvian public making referendum already second year in a row. I made a small research last year, and compared support for the government & parliament in Estonia, EU (an average), Latvia and Lithuania. I made the table only from YES answers. Undecided voters are fluctuating from 3-5%, thus the rest you may calculate yourself are representing NO's. Number 1 displays result of the spring poll and the second row (without a number) displays the autumn poll.
Q: Do you trust your government? YES answers
Q: Do you trust your parliament? YES answers
There are similarities between lack of trust for the government in Latvia and Lithuania. Both countries, however, are miles away from Estonia and the autumn Eurobarometer data clearly shows that lack of trust for the government in Latvia has stagnated below the legitimacy line of the democratic system (19% support for the government and only 16% for the parliament).
The number 213 000 is roughly 10% of the total number of inhabitants in Latvia and that is the most active one. However, I would argue that the first 5% are "true" activists (135000 signatures given until April 8), because another 5% of signatures were collected literally during last two days of the election campaign. It is a usual trend already, and it shows that majority of Latvians like to be led by collective action. What do I mean by this is the fact that instead of making up their mind on their own, and going and signing in relative calm about 100 000 citizens preferred to stay in long queues where they could chitchat and/or let the steam out. There are several reasons for such behaviour, and they would be discussed another time.
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