Šlesers names three financial problems for Latvia: railway, airBaltic and Rail Baltica

Ainārs Šlesers, a member of the Saeima (Latvia's parliament) and chair of the “Latvia First” faction, pointed to three areas where he believes Latvia must address major financial problems. He spoke on the TV24 programme “Ziņu TOP”, published on 15 November. In his view, improving public administration alone is not enough, because it remains unclear how the state will cope with the large expenses in these areas.

Šlesers said his faction is ready to support administrative improvements, but argued that this does not answer the fundamental question about several problems.

Railway and transit

The first problem he named was the state company Latvian Railways and the transit sector. He said the company needs state subsidies of around 50 million euros every year, and that the future of the transit industry and ports remains unclear. He described this as a 50-million-euro “hole” each year.

airBaltic

He linked the second problem to Latvia's national airline airBaltic, which is undergoing insolvency proceedings under US “Chapter 11” in a New York court. According to Šlesers, creditors, or the court, will soon request guarantees of about 150 million, and the Saeima will have to decide on the matter.

Rail Baltica

Šlesers called Rail Baltica, the Baltic states' railway project, the most serious problem. He referred to information aired on Sunday on TV3's programme “Nekā personīga” that contracts had allegedly been signed costing twice as much as in Estonia and Lithuania, and asked who had concluded them. He also said project costs may have risen from the originally planned 2.8 billion euros to roughly 15 billion euros. In his assessment, this amounts to bankruptcy for Latvia.