We can save ourselves and win only together – as a fighting nation

Start of the interview here.

Do people have an understanding of what is happening in Ukraine?

Many do not understand. One is used to coming to Kyiv, meeting with Zelensky, going down to the shelter, coming back to Latvia, but it is not the same when you are on the front line. Everything is real there, emotions are real, people act, act, take responsibility. There people’s eyes are real. That’s where the hypocrisy goes, and I believe that’s a lot.

Those who have experienced and seen it appreciate it very much. But our country is run as a country of civil servants. We are sinking lower and lower, and this already shows that it is not the right direction.

The way down is never the right way.

We are unable to see common, unified goals. Well, at least about Ukraine: we could agree that we support Ukraine together. But no, someone will look for who is the real supporter, who is not the real one. Even there we are divided, ultimately damaging the common cause – support for Ukraine.

It’s kind of absurd. But going back to the Aven scandal – it was maintained for a long time. About two months after the start of the scandal, you met with film people, and film director Ilze Burkovska-Jakobsen poured you a glass of wine. What was the reason for this ostentatious act?

Human mental imbalance. Nothing more.

But there must be some justification. It can’t be: I walked by and just poured wine on him.

This is the new religion – “New Age”: when you are told that this and that is bad and when you throw a stone at him or pour wine on him, you will immediately be good with it. Unfortunately, researchers such as Kažoka and the others promote this.

Iveta Kažoka said that it was a very good act.

Yes, yes, Kažoka liked it very much. Unfortunately, that’s how people are, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Until the country clears itself of all these heroes of the non-state sector, who, after clinging to the budget, draw resources, nothing will change.

And then they are paid, they are called, and then they are such experts, and you already know what this expert will say at any given moment. They are simply serving the existing system, and they are also partly responsible for what is happening now, just because they are playing this theater of the absurd for public money.

Director Ilze Zariņa now works in the Ogre Museum, where the porcelain exhibition was planned. how is she doing

Not only Ilze Zariņa works there, Ritvars Jansons and many other specialists also work there. The individual potential in the museum has become higher. This is evidenced by the exhibitions and content they create. The museum has cleaned itself up, and that has been good.

So you are satisfied with the work of the museum?

Of course. The fact that I am satisfied is one thing, but the residents of Ogre region are also satisfied. They feel that there is a breath of fresh air, it has brought high quality, and the residents appreciate it.

There is another very good event in Ogre county. While about 400 schools have been closed in recent years in Latvia, especially rural and border schools, a new gymnasium has opened in Ogre county. How did it work for you?

We haven’t even been working long. We have tried to give good content and a good environment to students in our region. We had a lot of opponents who said: you don’t need to do this, it will be very expensive. Hey, where we have a former professional technical school, let’s close it down and it will be fine. But the gymnasium also has a sports arena, gymnasiums, wonderful chemistry, biology, and technology classrooms. There are many possibilities.

All over the world, where people value knowledge, both universities and gymnasiums are built as works of art. Invest maximum resources to achieve the result to take these students to another level because they will be the next ones to lead the country and the cities. They will create something even better.

We must try to lift these young people up. If the family cannot do it, then the municipality can do it by giving them a good environment in which to learn. Then they will continue to try to raise the standard of living. This is a benefit. And six male educators who want to be classroom teachers applied to us.

It is unusual for men to apply for such a job.

Because there are good working conditions, a good environment, and we can balance the proportion between women and men. Since the student, starting from the age of 12, looks for an example outside his family, it is very important that in Latvia, where a large number of children grow up in single-parent families, teachers should be both women and men. Then the students will be able to take experience from both of them.

Girts Ozoliņš/MN

How do you feel about school closures as such, especially on the border?

It will pay off in time. In a negative sense. There are two examples in Ogre county – Plāteres and Zādzenes parishes. Some 40-50 years have passed since the school was closed there, and these parishes have disappeared. Then the next school closes, then the next, the next and the next, no more new families come, and the parishes die.

If we want people to come back from England or Ireland, they can’t come back empty handed. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many city dwellers began to look for life outside of Riga – in private houses, rural houses. If you have good internet, you can work remotely. Children need a school, you need a road, a hard road, so you don’t break your car, and you can lead your life from the countryside. This is a trend that needs to be continued and maintained. In this way, we could bring many people back to the countryside.

There are 16 parishes in Ogre county. We have won that an asphalted road will lead to Lauberi, the last parish to which there was a gravel road, and we will have hard surface roads to all parishes. That’s what to start with. Because Latvia’s identity lies precisely in the countryside.

We have tried to preserve every rural school. It is essential to have this service. In order for people to come to live in parishes, there must be a school, a kindergarten, and also a community center. If the school disappears, then everything else also disappears: the territories slowly die, and nothing will change there.

Once upon a time, during the first independent state, Ulmanis drove to every school that was opened. In Ogre, we discovered the best gymnasium in the Baltics – new, modern, contemporary. Our public media didn’t show it.

Yes, I noticed. What is not scandalous is not important.

It is stealing the truth because there are things we can be proud of. And it doesn’t matter that I am a member of the National Union and the mayor of the National Union. We have also built a wonderful library in Ogre, which the whole of Latvia can be proud of. And now there is also a gymnasium. But the media stole this truth. It is sad that the truth is stolen and not reflected.

Girts Ozoliņš/MN

Do you think the National Union is doing enough to highlight these extremely serious issues? Because this is the time of the National Union, and any topic is the topic of the National Union.

I do not determine the policy of the National Association. But what would I like to say about Raivi Dzintara (NA board chairman – EV)? He never betrayed me. Never. And I respect him a lot for that. And as long as he is in the National Union, I will also be in the National Union.

Often we want a particular person to act in one way or another. If a person does not carry out your projections, then you feel that they are doing something wrong. But those are my projections and I might do things differently.

From the moment I started taking the position of council chairman, many had projections on me. Someone expected that I would support him financially, that I would support his project, that I would do something else. Due to some circumstances or considerations, I was unable to do so. Then these people started to get disappointed in me because, you see, they thought that Helmanis was like that, but in reality they were projections of these people.

Raivis has managed to unite very different opinions and currents in the National Association. And he has managed to combine it all in one party. This is his phenomenon. The rest are our projections. If we respect and love a person, then we allow him to act and trust him. And I may have expected things from other people that I would have done, but we are all different.

We often look for the different. We have to try to switch, and it’s everyone’s responsibility. We live in a very divided society.

And now these “New Unity” struggles. Of course, we can say – Kariņš is such and such, but thanks to Kariņš, “Unity” lives at all. In his own time he took responsibility for it. And, yes, I may not like him either, but I must not fail to say that at one time he raised “Unity”. Yes, it is, he picked up. And then when he picks it up, it drops him into the toilet bowl with his crew. That’s politics.

Cruel.

People are cruel. Those who are around. I wouldn’t want to be on that team. But I am lucky with my team members. Because I’m in the National Union, not “Unity”.

I also congratulate you on that. Imagine you are the Prime Minister, the head of our government. What would be the first three jobs you would do?

The first job: I would address the prime minister of Estonia, also of Lithuania and Poland. I would start thinking about how to defend myself after blocking the Suwalki corridor. Because we must understand that the Suwalki corridor is our trap. Traps of all three Baltic states.

The Suwalki corridor can be fired upon from both Königsberg and Belarus, but the whole of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will try to get out through it. Three countries. It will be the cork of the bottle, and it will be a trap for people where they will perish. That would be my first step: hold an exercise, and the four of us would think about how to save our people.

There is an example of Ukraine: many died during the evacuation. The Russians spared no one. And if anyone thinks that war spares, then all those who lay buried in Butch with their hands tied behind their backs apparently thought exactly the same.

The second thing: we cannot save ourselves one by one. We can all be saved together. If someone says: I will try to save my baby! – then look at the Suwalki corridor, we have no way to escape through it.

We can save ourselves and win only together – as a fighting nation. And you have to go to America, London and talk about what is happening, talk about support for Ukraine. If we delay this, this may be the last year that Ukraine hangs on. And it can be very sad. This means that the actuality – the war – can move to the borders of our country. I mean, those are our main tasks.

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