While the incumbent PM was touring Far East other governing coalition members were making plans for a life after Ivars Godmanis premiership. In the Latvian Embassy in Tokyo the PM could experience fruits of the economic collapse of the republic of Latvia. It is not cheap to live in Tokyo and when one cuts expenses without thinking what spheres it comprises, then one may find oneself in the situation the PM found himself.
Upon return back to the shores of the Baltic Sea he could witness that the present governing coalition is simply unmanageable. Usually prime minister is needed for coordinating the work of the cabinet, but Ivars Godmanis failed to do that. Nobody doubts patriotism of the still incumbent PM, but at the same time everyone in the government house knows his endemic inability to delegate powers. Unfortunately the PM is a loner and workaholic, but that does not help him now, when tasks for overhauling the Latvian economic and political system are simply titanic. Also the 21 st century challenges of the EU country are quite different from the challenges of the former Soviet republic in the late 1980´s. Prime Minister probably thought that he could do more good while keeping his alter ego at short leash, but apparently transport supremo started turning Ivars Godmanis on short leash. To put it bluntly - it is the end for the generation of the Third Awakening political idealism! The change of political generations is inevitable and after the end of the triple elections process we should see fresh breeze in the stagnates political atmosphere in Latvia.
Yesterday the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) faction head in the parliament Mr Brigmanis announced that if the demands of farmers would not be met then they would leave the governing coalition. After Mr Brigmanis announcement the head of the People´s Party (PP) faction Mr Kucinskis simply concluded that ``partners do not behave like this during hard times.`` Today the PM announced the final version of the slimming of the government. According to this plan the number of Latvian ministries should decrease from eighteen to ten. The central government would retain ministries of Foreign Affairs; Interior; Justice; Education, Science and Culture; Welfare, Health and Children's affairs; Transport and Communications; Agriculture; Economics, regional affairs and environment; Defense; and Finance. In addition the number of about 200 state agencies would be slimmed down to 85.
Slimming down of the government and an announcement of the ZZS served as a pretext for announcement of the PP parteigenosse Mareks Seglins. Home Secretary Seglins dryly announced that after demarche of ZZS it does not make any sense to be in the same coalition with the ZZS. Press secretary of the PM Egdars Vaikulis on the Latvian TV evening news informed the public, that Ivars Godmanis has learned about the PP demarche from the mass media, and promised to contact Parteigenosse Seglins (PP) to hold consultations with other members of the governing coalition during the weekend.
Yes, that's it and now there is a question when exactly early elections would be held? Today the speaker of the parliament in the absence of the president signed the new party financing law, thus financially well off parties would still play inordinate influence in upcoming elections (remember, Latvian parties are not financed from the state budget).
