“United for Latvia” in the Riga City Council’s extraordinary elections is one of the smallest lists of candidates – only 12 people run in it. The leader of the list, Dainis Vītols, has already admitted that he wants to offer an alternative to the elected and this start can be assessed as an experiment.
History of “United for Latvia”
What do “United to Latvia” and Dainis Vitols promise to Riga?Jānis Kincis
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The party “United to Latvia”, founded in Rēzekne in 2011, previously carefully prepared for the 12th Saeima elections in 2014. At that time, the leader of the party and the list was a politician and businessman, called oligarch Ainars Slesers.
– It was not possible to reach the representation in the Saeima – the party won just over 1% of the votes. Shortly afterwards, Slesers announced that he was leaving politics. A year earlier, in 2013, the party “United for Latvia” ran in the municipal elections. In Riga, the leader of its list at that time was the Deputy Rector of Riga Technical University (RTU) Mareks Zeltins, but in the absence of recognizable candidates, he won only 0.48% of the votes. At the same time, the party “United for Latvia” won representation in eight municipalities, mainly in Latgale. In 2017, the party representatives were elected in four places.
The party “United to Latvia” is not participating in this year’s Riga City Council extraordinary elections – only the name has been borrowed from the party in order to be able to run in these elections.
These people have called participation in the emergency elections an experiment. This is also confirmed by the relatively small number of candidates – 12.
Candidates
None of the 12 candidates included in the “United for Latvia” list is a member of this party.
The first number on the list is architect Dainis Vītols, chairman of the board of the Ferado Scientific Society. The Latvian Association of Homeopaths has nominated Normunds Limba, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Assistant Professor of Riga Stradiņš University, a member of its Board, to run in the Riga City Council elections.
Jānis Mārtiņš Skuja, one of the candidates on the “United for Latvia” list, has previously been a Riga councilor. He was once a member of the Civic Union, the National Union, the Alliance of Regions. In his application to the Central Election Commission, he has indicated that he is a member of the board of the association “Latvijas Dižie Austrumi”. The goals of the association include the identification, acquisition and maintenance of Freemasonry traditions and art. Skuja has also been promoting Tibetan independence ideas for years.
Jānis Pļaviņš, whose name is publicly known in connection with the structuring of water, swirling it billions of times and making water positive, also starts in the ranks of “United for Latvia”. However, scientists have publicly called this product an unfounded marketing ploy, because due to the properties of water molecules, its structuring is not possible.
Silvija Bruņa, a member of the board of the Professional Association of Project Managers, Valdis Līcis, the owner of the company “Core Deep Solutions”, and Arnolds Ziemelis, a teacher of interest education at Riga Secondary School, are also running for “United Latvia”.
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Program
One of the goals of the party is to develop a new structural plan for the city of Riga, which would address the implementation of the city plan, infrastructure and modern modes of transport.
“United for Latvia” promises to provide the city railway, which will reduce the time spent by residents on the road.
The program describes with mathematical accuracy how much time Rigans spend on the way to work and home.
Assume that he has spent two hours a day, in his 25 years of work he has spent 13,000 hours – a year and a half of personal free time, not counting the queues for kindergartens and other services. In order to triple the time spent on the road, city rail lines need to be introduced on existing tracks. However, it has not been said how the people of Riga, to whose homes the train tracks do not reach, will save time.
The candidates on the list also believe that “today not only a new Riga City Council is needed, but also a Riga resident with new self-confidence and intelligent thinking”.
“United for Latvia” also provides an insight into its forecasts of maintaining budget revenues in the current amount and expected budget changes next year. “United for Latvia” emphasizes that this year’s planned revenues are not yet guaranteed, but in the coming years it will be possible to maintain them thanks to large infrastructure projects, such as “Rail Baltica” or the Eastern Highway plan. It is also necessary to continue audits and audits in municipal capital companies in order to reduce their expenses and make more efficient use of funds. The next European funding period will also benefit Riga.
According to the candidates for “United for Latvia”, the most acceptable method of increasing revenue is to develop a business environment in Riga that would increase the income of the population and increase the personal income (PIT) tax revenue accordingly. It is necessary to acquire unused territories in the center of Riga for commercial purposes. By transforming the area occupied by the railway circle and the adjacent former industrial districts in the amount of 4 square kilometers, it is possible to attract investments of 4-15 billion euros in the coming years. This is possible if an appropriate structural plan is drawn up and adequate investment protection is guaranteed and bureaucratic obstacles are removed.
In next year’s budget, the party sees more municipal funding for the salaries of kindergarten staff, as well as for various social programs, such as housing for young families. By reorganizing the “Riga House Manager”, the costs of housing maintenance could even be reduced. Expenditure in the field of environmental protection, as well as in the field of health, which would result from the improvement of the quality of the environment, has to be increased.
Dainis Vitols – business card
Dainis Vītols, a candidate for the position of the mayor of Riga, was born in 1963. RTU has a master’s degree in architecture with distinction in urban planning. He has worked at the RTU Department of Architecture for five years. From 1992 to 2018, he was the director of SIA “Smartdesign”, which is engaged in the design and construction supervision of construction sites, customers included several “Maxima” supermarkets, Riga Art Space, various office premises in Riga and Jurmala. Previously, Vītols was the founder and co-owner of the cultural center “Dream Factory”. For some time he was also the chief architect of the Architects Department of the Riga City Construction Board.
Dainis Vitols – business cardJānis Kincis
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He is currently the chairman of the board of the Ferado scientific society. Among the goals of the association are “to update an in-depth scientific understanding of the essence of the concept of free energy in the context of other natural processes”, as well as “to improve the implementation of environmentally friendly alternative energy innovations”. Vītols is a board member of the Latvian Infrastructure Modernization Association.
He has also founded and runs one of the longest-running car enthusiast communities in Latvia – the Jaguar Club.
Starting as a candidate for the position of mayor of Riga, Vītols has set the development of a new structural plan for Riga and the development of modern infrastructure in the capital as the main goal. He has emphasized the need to create a new city today and has always thought about improving and reorganizing cities.
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