And it was a rather symbolic demarche by the deputies of the National Alliance, which showed that the election campaign is in full swing and there will be many such attempts to remove the Prime Minister or ministers — almost at every plenary session. ## Threat to National Security Moreover, both the Prime Minister and certain ministers indeed deserve dismissal. However, not for the reason that the deputies of the National Alliance wanted to remove Evika Silina yesterday. They wanted to remove her… because of the language! Raivis Dzintars and Co. are outraged that there are still broadcasts (on the internet) and articles in Russian in public media. This contradicts the recommendation in the concept of Latvia's national security to cease Russian broadcasting in public media from January 1, 2026. Interestingly, Evika Silina herself came to discuss the request for the Prime Minister's resignation, where she spoke from the Saeima podium about the government's efforts to eradicate the remnants of the Russian language in the public space. ## “Latvijas Radio 4 has ceased to exist” “This year we can already observe that we no longer have the radio channel ‘Latvijas Radio 4’. The broadcasting license has been revoked. And the government has indeed consistently strengthened the Latvian language – in the education system, transitioning to teaching only in the state language, and in public media… It must be said that it turned out that this work was not so quick. But, in my opinion, a lot has been done like never before. And the news on ‘Latvijas Televīzija’ — ‘LTV7’ — in Russian has been discontinued since last year,” Evika Silina praised herself. ## A Reason for Pride “Of course, from 2026 there will no longer be a separate Russian editorial office in Latvian public media. And there is only one editorial office that operates on the same principles, as in schools. And this requires certain changes. It requires certain rearrangements in these organizations themselves. And I must say that this should have been done a long time ago. I am glad and proud that we did it,” continued the head of government. Evika Silina also acknowledged that some broadcasts in the languages of national minorities need to be made: “Of course, living in the European space, living in a democratic state where we adhere to the Constitution, there will be various languages of national minorities, because we are a democratic state. We want people with minority languages to also be able to exist in Latvia.” ## There is no such law! Or is there? However, Latvian nationalists did not appreciate the efforts of Silina and Co. Moreover, deputy Arturs Butans (National Alliance) stated that there is no law obliging the state to finance broadcasts in Russian: “Open ‘likumi.lv’ and see for yourself. No law in Latvia obliges taxpayer money to fund content in Russian. There is no such law. If someone tells you otherwise, that person is spreading lies.” At the same time, the parliamentarian referred to the Law on Public Media, which states the necessity of broadcasting in the languages of national minorities. In Butans' interpretation, this does not mean that broadcasts must be in Russian. This is, of course, a brilliant conclusion, but if 37 percent of the residents of Latvia consider Russian their native language and it is the second largest language in the country, it would be strange to make broadcasts in any other minority language but not in Russian! ## Who are the “real” national minorities here? Indeed, the deputies of the National Alliance have a different logic: they do not consider all Russian speakers to be representatives of national minorities. In their view, a national minority can only be citizens of Latvia who are non-Latvians and have lived here for centuries. But even in such an interpretation, citizens of Latvia with Russian as their native language make up a significant percentage of the population and have the right to receive at least minimal content in Russian in public media for their taxes. However, National Alliance deputy Edvins Shnore almost threatens those who still allow broadcasts in Russian in public media: “Giving additional state money for broadcasts in Russian, in my opinion, is indeed sabotage. And I have no doubt that the day will come when the authors of this decision will have to answer for it.” The head of the ‘New Unity’ faction, Edmunds Jurevics, tried to show voters that the deputies of the Prime Minister's party and the Prime Minister herself are no less interested than the deputies of the National Alliance in eliminating the Russian language from the public space. “Along with this budget, we have finally stopped subsidizing printed publications that are published in languages that have nothing to do with Latvia or the European Union. This is what the government of Evika Silina has done. The language in this Saeima and government has been strengthened many times,” E. Jurevics reminded. Opposition deputies emphasized in their speeches that Evika Silina and her entire government deserve dismissal, but not for the “language reason,” but primarily due to failures in implementing mega-projects, due to the stagnation of the economy, and because Latvia continues to rank last in the EU in all indicators. In any case, it was clear to everyone that Silina's resignation was not at risk. She was supported in the vote only by the deputies of the National Alliance and the United List. ## In line… for resignation It is obvious that in the near future the opposition will again initiate the question of the resignation of either the Prime Minister or the Minister of the Interior, Rihards Kozlovskis (‘New Unity’), or the Minister of Communications, Atis Švinka (‘Progressives’). The opposition will try to remove Silina and Kozlovskis because they, unlike Lithuania and Poland, failed to achieve the cancellation of the mandatory requirement in the EU to accept illegal refugees from third countries by quotas. In turn, the opposition will seek the dismissal of Švinka due to the decision to “freeze” the piles on the Daugava, which were built for the future railway bridge as part of Rail Baltica. The active political season in Latvia is open!