Domestic policy Egils Levits
Egils Levits

Yesterday Saeima (Parliament) voted on the future status of the Varakļāni region contrary to Constitutional Court Ruling 2020-43-0106 of 28 May 2021, therefore President of Latvia today met with representatives of all political groups in the ruling coalition:  Arvils Ašeradens (JV), Jānis Dombrava (NA), Raivis Dzintars (NA), Marija Golubeva (A/P!), Juris Jurašs (JKP), Ainars Latkovskis (JV), Māris Možvillo (KPV LV) and Juris Pūce (A/P!).

President of Latvia reminded everyone that all constitutional institutions work strictly according to Satversme (Constitution) and it is the task of the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of laws adopted by the parliament. Ruling of the Constitutional Court establishes that the provision of the Law on Administrative Territories and Populated Areas (or the Administrative-territorial reform/Regional reform law) about amalgamation of Varakļāni region and the new Rēzekne region is unconstitutional.

President also stressed that, according to Preamble of Satversme, Latvia is a country which adheres to the rule of law and that means that Saeima must respect the decisions of the Constitutional Court. If Saeima ignores Court’s rulings, it creates the risk of a constitutional crisis. He also remined that Satversme has given president the power to protect the constitution and he will not be able to sign into law this blatantly unconstitutional bill. Egils Levits urged parties to find solution for avoiding such constitutional crisis.

Everyone agreed that constitutional crisis should be avoided by all means. Various options for avoiding this scenario were considered. One of them is to send the bill back to the parliament for changes that would respect the Constitutional Court decision regarding the status of the Varakļāni region, and new draft of the law would establish different borders for the new regions. Another option is to exclude Varakļāni region from transition to new system until a new regulation is adopted by the Saeima.

Everyone agreed that Saeima should now put all its efforts into resolving Varakļāni region status issue in a way which avoids potential constitutional crisis.