The new coalition of the Riga City Council continues the course started by the former mayor of Riga Nila Ushakov (S), according to Oleg Burov, the leader of the party “Honor to Serve Riga”.
The politician said that judging the entire coalition, he had no great illusions that words of cooperation would be followed by real action. However, he looked hopefully at the coalition-led candidate for mayor of Riga, Mārtiņš Staķis (APP). Both his pre-election campaign and talks with the opposition suggested that Staķis really wanted real cooperation with the opposition.
However, according to Burov, the behavior of other coalition partners is no different from that of Ushakov.
He is convinced that some coalition partners, like Ushakov, will try to put absolute control over departments such as the Department of Transportation and the Department of Urban Development. It is possible that this will encourage the distribution of influence in municipal capital companies as well, Burovs admitted.
According to him, the main thing in politics and life in general is to do, not to talk, but at the moment only rhetoric and double standards are visible from the new coalition.
Burovs reminded that at one time, representatives of the opposition Jānis Bordāns (JKP) proposed to elect the deputy head of the property privatization commission of the Riga City Municipality. In turn, the agenda of his chair ” City Property Committee was sent to opposition deputies as soon as possible.
Another similarity with Ushakov’s council is the coalition’s plan to create the positions of deputy committee heads as paid positions. Thus, the work started by Ushakov will be legalized – to pay consultants, but in this coalition people will be paid, whose actual job will be only to receive a salary, Burov thinks.
LETA has already reported that instead of the promised positions of deputy heads of Riga City Council committees, opposition factions could only get information about the work in the municipality.
The candidate for the post of mayor of Riga, Stakis, who previously promised opposition factions the opportunity to hold the positions of vice-chairmen of committees, told reporters today after a meeting with the partners of the future coalition that “everything is not going according to plan with the opposition”.
Although the coalition parties had already agreed to address the opposition parties on Wednesday, offering them the positions of deputy committee chairmen, and Staķis had already met with two opposition factions on Thursday, today part of the coalition factions changed their minds and are not ready to give up the deputies.
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