The Showdown

The crisis that has been brewing since last autumn's elections (when Aigars Kalvītis became the first Prime Minister to survive an election in a Baltic State since the restoration of independence) has come to a head. In a step no Latvian President has taken since democracy was restored, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga announced yesterday that she was suspending the promulgation of the ill-conceived security legislation that the governing coalition rushed through the Saeima, Latvia's parliament. The President invoked Article 72 of the Satversme, Latvia's constitution, which reads:

The President has the right to suspend the proclamation of a law for a period of two months. The President shall suspend the proclamation of a law if so requested by not less than one-third of the members of the Parliament. This right may be exercised by the President, or by one-third of the members of the Parliament, within seven days of the adoption of the law by the Parliament. The law thus suspended shall be put to a national referendum if so requested by not less than one-tenth of the electorate. If no such request is received during the aforementioned two month period, the law shall then be proclaimed after the expiration of such period. A national referendum shall not take place, however, if the Parliament again votes on the law and not less than three-quarters of all members of the Parliament vote for the adoption of the law.

In a January article on the darkening political skies, "Experts Warn of 'Oligarchs' Usurpation' in Latvia," Ben Nimmo of Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted Lolita Čigāne of the Providus public policy NGO: "What we're seeing is the oligarchs' usurpation of Latvia's institutional framework by putting 'their' people in the right places. It's not completely illegal or dictatorial, but we're moving towards becoming just a token democracy." Nimmo also wrote a piece about the Saiema's subsequent defiance of the President's veto, and the first English-language article on yesterday's dramatic events.

Sandra Kalniete, a leader of the Third Awakening and now the presidential candidate from the opposition party Jaunais Laiks (New Era), said that the President "is currently the sole guarantor of democracy in Latvia" and called for the resignation of Aigars Kalvītis' government. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga's final term as President ends in July. Aivars Endziņš, formerly the chairman of Latvia's Constitutional Court and a harsh critic of the governing coalition's consolidation of power, hints that the President's invocation of Article 72 could be a prelude to Article 48:

The President shall be entitled to propose the dissolution of the Parliament. Following this proposal a national referendum shall be held. If in the referendum more than half of the votes are cast in favor of dissolution, the Parliament shall be considered dissolved, new elections called, and such elections held no later than two months after the date of the dissolution of the Parliament.