MP Edgars Tavars: Now is not the time to consider all citizens suspects

A conversation with Edgars Tavars (ZZS), Member of the Saeima, Chairman of the Latvian Green Party (Latvijas Zaļā partija).

How do you assess the situation in Ukraine?

As my colleague in the faction Raimonds Bergmanis says, if we want peace, we should prepare for war. At the moment, there is a sense of unease in society about everything that is happening. And there is a catastrophic lack of strategic communication, as it was during Covid. We have not learnt from our mistakes, but this case is much more serious. There is no direct threat to Latvia at the moment, and there is a high probability that there won't be, but people should be informed about everything - including what to ask from their municipality if there is a threat, if there is a need for civil protection. If the worst-case scenario happens, who should people contact, are there bomb shelters, where do they go, where do they assemble? What should those who want to defend their country do?

If people are panicking and buying up salt in shops in large numbers, it shows that we have not come very far from the madness of the pandemic, when buckwheat and toilet paper were bought. The people of Latvia are starved of information and are falling for all sorts of nonsense. Panic is being created where it absolutely should not be.

Communication, which is one of the pillars of comprehensive national defense, should have been in place by now and should have been in place a long time ago. It is also necessary to work at this time because of the potential for provocation.

There are two significant dates ahead...

Yes, March 16 and May 9, when provocations are very likely to happen. And especially if the aggressor - Russia - fails with its war in Ukraine. March 16 is very soon.

Comprehensive national defense should be taught to children at school starting from September 1 and not postponed.

There are municipalities where civil protection is already well developed and where everything is planned - there are crisis centers. These are Jelgava, Ventspils and other municipalities. But there are also places where nothing has been done - where they say: "Listen to the radio!" But if the radio and the Internet don't work, then what? What to do? People are right to be worried. People have already been hurt by the electricity price hikes and by Covid, but now there is a much more serious crisis - much more serious than Covid has been in these two pandemic years. People are under enormous stress. If the shops are running out of salt, it shows that the deficit of political leadership and the lack of information is enormous. People live on information that they send and tell each other.

I have addressed Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV) countless times, stressing the need to establish a professional crisis center in the context of the pandemic. The same crisis management center is needed now in the context of comprehensive national defense. Assistance to Ukraine is terribly uncoordinated on the part of the state - everything that is done is based solely on private initiative and enthusiasm.

There is not a single municipality that does not organize assistance to Ukraine. Our Green Party Secretary General, Pēteris Dimants, is also working to provide the kind of assistance that Ukrainians need right now, at this very moment. This is done in close contact with the Ukrainian Embassy in Latvia. But at the moment there is no help from the state.

It is clear that the threat level in Latvia - the rise or fall of it - will depend directly on how the hostilities in Ukraine progress. If Ukraine succeeds in preserving its independence, the threat level in Latvia will be lower.

Of course, I'm very glad that Latvia is in NATO and that our strategic partners guarantee our security, but every effort must be made to help Ukraine.

And it is necessary to set up a strategic communication center that would take care of both civil protection if necessary and of informing the population. The government must do this. As an opposition party, we are ready to support such initiatives.

One of the foundations of comprehensive defense is economic resilience.

What kind of economic resilience is possible? Experts at the Bank of Latvia estimate that inflation may soon reach double digits...

Our faction, together with other members of the Saeima, is pushing for changes in tax legislation - for example, a reduction in excise duty on fuel.

Everything possible must be done to cut red tape, to reduce the tax burden. Fuel and electricity prices are going up and will go up again, so we need to help out citizens and businesses. There is a catastrophic shortage of fertilizers for agriculture, prices will have increased several times, because until now, fertilizers have been bought from Belarus and Russia. Something has to be done about that - we will also have to help out the farmers.

There might be a world hunger crisis, a food catastrophe, and that is when the people and the farmers will need assistance. At the moment, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry must sit at the table with the government and tell it what to do and how to do it. Because neither the opposition politicians in government nor in parliament are as knowledgeable as those who work in the field of trade and industry.

There is a kind of inertia from before the war - Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš tasked the Prosecutor General Juris Stukāns with developing measures to combat the shadow economy, and Stukāns fulfilled the task with a proposal to introduce total control of people's incomes. Are such measures no longer needed now?

We need to save the people so that they can survive, so that they can eat, so that they can pay their bills. Of course, if a thief is caught red-handed, he should be punished, but now is not the time to suspect every citizen and confiscate his property if he cannot show on his tax return where he got the money from. €5000 is already not that much money that should be criminalized and confiscated if such is the discrepancy between the income declaration and the income. For €5000 you can buy a worn-out car. And it may soon be possible to buy less and less for that amount, because of high inflation. Such legislative change initiatives are untimely. This is not the time to consider all citizens suspects.

The New Conservative Party (Jaunā konservatīvā partija, JKP) has pushed forward amendments to the Criminal Law which are almost the same as the new Criminal Code in Putin's Russia: spreading false information is punishable by imprisonment. Do we need such amendments?

I strongly opposed such amendments in the Saeima Legal Affairs Committee. We do not live in the USSR. The master of the Kremlin has just come out with an almost identical proposal in Russia and has brought about such amendments to the law. As a result, all sensible people, all journalists who are not going to flatter Putin, are fleeing Russia. In Latvia, Bordāns did not want to punish them with 15 years, but only with three years in prison. That is the only difference.

***

The publication is paid for by the association of political parties Zaļo un zemnieku savienība