“I don’t read newspapers”
RIGA – The most favored candidate to become Latvia’s next prime minister is a feeble solution to the crisis the previous government stepped into.
The government, led by Aigars Kalvitis of the People’s Party, had to resign on December 5 after thousands of people flooded the streets to demand a change amidst the political culture peppered with cynical attitude toward people.
Suffering through low popularity and high number of seats in the parliament, the ruling People’s Party offered a brand new savior in the form of the minister of regional development Edgars “Harry Potter” Zalans (pictured).
The 40-year-old former mayor of the town of Kuldiga took a page out of the George W. Bush’s early days, according to his interview to the magazine Privata Dzive (Private Life).
“I read magazines,” he told, well, the magazine. “I don’t read newspapers out of principle, so that I wouldn’t read any information that creates negative emotions.”
Besides not reading newspapers, Zalans plans to earn back the trust lost by the previous administration by not participating in the most watched political TV program on Latvian television Kas Notiek Latvija? (What’s Happening in Latvia?).
The TV program has become the token Wednesday night line-up led by journalist Janis Domburs, who sits politicians down, asks them questions and challenges them on policies.
As the Baltic Bulletin notes,
“Domburs is never rude per se, but he has no problem with letting his guests - and the audience - know when they aren’t being candid or are just being plain daft. The show is a Wednesday evening institution for the intelligentsia and politicos and if any single media outlet can be said to have a direct influence on policy, this is it.”
Zalans, however, told the magazine, “That dude has real problems, you know what I’m sayin’?”
All day today, the People’s Party politicians and Zalans press secretary have been trying to control the damage, saying his comments were taken out of context or hyped up by the magazine. Zalans himself, however, said everything he could when he kept quiet today.
At the same time, if appointed and confirmed, Zalans will become a third little-known politician who jolted through the ranks to become the third most important political leader in Latvia.
The cynicism of the political elite, the People’s Party in particular, is astonishing. They’ve nominated the man, 9 years my senior, who doesn’t read newspapers; who completed “brainwashing” courses at the Leadership Academy, related to now-defunct U.S company Lifespring; who is so distant from the people he plans to serve that it becomes clear such a man can never win back the public trust.
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