De facto: PM's Liepāja visit was effectively organised by United List office and Uldis Sesks

Latvian Television's investigative programme "de facto" has found that a trip officially described as a working visit by the Prime Minister and two ministers to the Kurzeme region was, in practice, organised by the office of the United List (AS) party together with Uldis Sesks, the party's leader in Liepāja and a former mayor of the city.

During the visit, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs met with residents at Liepāja's Pētertirgus market in the middle of a working day, accompanied by AS parliamentary candidates wearing the party's campaign T-shirts. In an interview given to the news portal "liepājniekiem.lv" during this walk, Kulbergs stated that voters pay for expensive time from ministers and the prime minister, and that this time should not be wasted.

How the visit was arranged

According to the programme, although the trip was presented as an official working visit by the head of government to the region, its practical preparation and execution were shaped by the United List party office and by Sesks personally. This raises questions about the boundary between a state official's official duties and one party's pre-election activities.

The visit also produced photographs of the prime minister posing on a combine harvester, which, together with the market visit, formed part of the broader visual material generated during the trip.

"de facto" highlighted the extent to which party structures were involved in planning and coordinating an event formally described as a state administration working visit.