Slesers is confident in his victory in the Riga City Council elections, but the issue of coalition partners / day was open

At the presentation of the Riga Municipal Election List, Slesers admitted on Monday that the most important aspect is not the largest number of mandates, but how many deputies the party would gain and whether it would have the necessary coalition of political partners.

The coalition issue is very important, Slesers admitted, saying that the Riga City Council and the government are currently in the coalition of opposite views of political forces, so there is no development.

Speaking about cooperation with other political forces, Slesers said he would look at cooperation with anyone ready to increase the city’s revenue.

According to Schleser, the LPV had a lot of internal competition when designing the electoral list. There are 63 places on the list, but there were many more people.

He named a number of candidates listed in the list, known as the Cabinet of Ministers of the Riga, for example, former « Harmony » politician Andrei Klementiev would be able to deal with social issues, but former Director of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency Andris Ozols will be able to chair the City Development Committee.

Investigator of the Financial Police Department, lawyer Karina Plaude will ensure the fight against corruption, former head of the NP Foods, Rolands Gulbis, will work with the implementation of private public partnership projects, for example to ensure the establishment of a northern cross.

The list also includes other known politicians, such as former deputy Ringolds Balodis, former Mayor of Riga from the « Fatherland » ranks, Andris Argalis, Riga Vice Mayor, at that time « Harmony » politician Sergei Dolgopolov and others. Jānis Zarzecki, a surgeon and businessman, will also be on the party list, Kaspar Kristopan, the son of Vilis Christian Kristopan, who is an expert in real estate, as well as Slesers’ son Edward. Other sons of Christian and Slesers from the LPV list have already come to the ranks of members of the Saeima.

If you succeed in obtaining a mayor, Slesers promises to develop the economy, dismiss about a third of officials, and encourage the redistribution of personal income tax (PIT) in favor of the capital, which is a legislative issue and is not solved by municipal decisions.

Slesers, like a number of Riga politicians before him, noted that many people living in Pieriga work in the capital, but their taxes go to the municipalities where they are declared. Therefore, as the Mayor of Riga, he will encourage half of the payment of PIT workers in Riga to the municipality where the person works and the other half of the municipality in which the person is declared.

He acknowledged that such changes could not be introduced by the Riga City Council itself, but it would be the LPV initiative to the Saeima and the government.

The politician said that a large part of municipal officials were professionals, and that LPV was ready to pay bonuses. However, these officials are « subject to political officials », whose contribution is highly questionable. Slesers said about 30% of officials should be released by getting rid of political inserts. Similar slogans of the liberation of political inserts were also in the last term in Riga at the former political forces of power, when they took power from the « Harmony », which once gained it in Riga directly with Sleser’s then political force.

He recalled the slogan of his party: « Let’s raise Riga, lift Latvia! » Taking into account that Riga is more than half of the Latvian economy, the politician said by lifting Riga as well as lifting the whole country.

In Slesers’ opinion, Riga should not compete with Latvian cities and not even with the capitals of neighboring countries Vilnius and Tallinn, but with Oslo, Helsinki and other major cities in Northern Europe. The capital of Latvia should become one of the leading cities in Europe. In his opinion, the inability to develop Riga is a criminal failure.

He once promised that most of Riga’s center buildings would no longer have the inscription « sell ». « Most cafes and shops will be open again. We’ll open it all in one day. We’ll get it. I have a plan for how to do it, » Slesers said.

He promised to achieve the development of Riga the George Armisted from 1901 to 1912, which entered history with extensive construction and improvement. He promised that he would be building a boom in Riga, not only residential houses, but also hotels, as tourism would be what will create added value for the center of Riga.

Already next spring, Riga with Stockholm is connecting ferry traffic in everyday mode, as well as more cruise ships in Riga.

Municipal elections will take place on the first Saturday of June.