Latvian Foreign Minister resigns after flight scandal – Delfi

Latvian foreign minister Krisjanis Karins said on Thursday (March 28) that he would resign following a scandal over the use of public funds for private flights during his time as prime minister. The Latvian publication Delfi writes about this.

On Thursday, Kariņš met with Prime Minister Evika Silina to discuss the situation regarding private flights used for business trips during the Kariņš government.

After the meeting, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters that he would resign from his post as head of the foreign affairs department on April 10, when the Seimas decided on his resignation. He made no further comment.

Reaction of Latvian politicians

Latvia’s current Prime Minister, Evika Silina, said after her meeting with Karins that he worked diligently as Minister of Foreign Affairs and represented Latvia’s interests in the European Union and NATO well. Evaluating the decision to resign, the Prime Minister admitted that Karins acted like a “real Western politician” in order to eliminate the shadow of doubt in the case filed by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the practice of using private flights for business trips during his term as prime minister.

Silina also said that there is currently no candidate to replace Karins.

Edmunds Jurevics, head of the Socialist Party group in the Seimas, recalled that Karins has been Prime Minister for almost five years, leading a complex coalition at a time when Latvia was facing challenges such as Covid-19 and the pandemic and Russia had launched a brutal war. The war in Ukraine is irreversibly changing the geopolitical situation in the world.

“Kariņš’s resignation from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs is a valuable and responsible decision of a statesman, designed to prevent opponents from using this situation to attack the government, so that we can continue to work and complete the work done. started and planned,” Jurevičs said.

What is known about the airline scandal?

The newspaper writes that last week Latvia’s attorney general launched an investigation into misuse of public funds after it emerged that Kariņš’s cabinet allegedly spent up to 1.3 million euros on renting private jets for official trips.

The publication states that, according to the information provided by the Latvian State Chancellery, 613 thousand euros were spent on flights by Karins and his employees during their official trips from 2021 to March 2023, but some of the expenses were covered by the EU. It rose to over 1.3 million Euros. It was also learned that Karins, as Prime Minister, attended a total of 19 meetings of the European Council regarding special flights whose expenses were covered by the EU. The three-year cost of these flights to Europe is 750 thousand euros.

On March 25, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics announced: European countries should start preparations To a possible conflict with the Russian army. We are specifically talking about the possibility of returning to military service.

Also on March 8, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina compared the Russian Federation to an unpredictable alcoholic neighbor or a drug addict whose behavior is unpredictable.