Baltic Pride drew 7000, Latvia’s Minister of Culture resigns
Lithuania raises some taxes to fund defense spending
Several thousand mostly young people and teenagers marched under cool sunny skies in the Latvian capital on Saturday, June 15 ending Baltic Pride week that brought together LGBT rights activists from all three Baltic countries.
Organizers said that as many as 10 000 participants were expected, but police told local media that some 7000 persons had marched. The march, with activists chanting “queer rights are human rights!” and other slogans in Latvian and English and carrying banners and rainbow flags, took place without incident.
Counter-protestors from a religious group stood silently at a few places along the route that went along Riga’s main Brīvības (Freedom) Street and other central streets with signs that said, “Homosexuality is sin” and summoning the marchers “to Jesus”.
In contrast to the first Pride events in Latvia in 2005 and 2006 that were marred by violent counterprotests and attempted bans by the local authorities, such events in recent years have become increasingly accepted and have less of a character of protest.
Colors of Pride at the 2024 Baltic Pride march in Riga. Photo: Juris Kaža
Police presence along the march route was light in contrast to several years ago when riot police shielded the Pride event from angry counter-protestors and confined it to a fenced off park.
On Saturday, the march also assembled in the same park – Vērmanes Garden – but with beer and food stands and booths for a few political parties. Several embassies, including Norway, the UK, the US and Germany, participated with groups in the march, as did international companies represented in Riga such as Ernst & Young, the Nordic DNB Bank and Swedbank, the IT consultants Accenture and others.
The march in Riga came after more than a week of various public events on LGBT-related themes, including drag shows and comedy performances, as well as lessons in self-defense and seminars on making workplaces and educational facilities more inclusive of sexual minorities.
Latvia’s Minister of Culture resigns, is quickly replaced
Monday June 17 came with a somewhat bombshell announcement on social media by Minister of Culture Agnese Logina (Progressives-Pro) that she was resigning, effective immediately, for personal reasons. The Pro leadership moved quickly to replace her with Agnese Lāce, a sociologist and researcher of migration issues who was educated at the University of Amsterdam and is pursuing a doctorate at a research institution based in Turkey. She was Logina’s parliamentary secretary.
Lāce was quickly confirmed by the Saeima on June 20, the final session before the summer recess, but came under harsh criticism on X and other social media, mainly by right-wingers, for allegedly favoring “open borders” that would bring hordes of hostile Islamists to Latvia.
While the reasons for Logina’s departure remain private and personal, there is talk that she was not well respected in cultural and arts circles despite having been involved in the Latvian film industry as head of the Riga Film Museum and a curator of the annual Riga International Film Festival. Logina will now return to the Riga City Council, where she was elected in 2020.
Rēzekne City Council dismissed
Last Thursday the Saeima adopted the law by which Rēzekne City Council was dismissed and a temporary administration appointed. The City Council was dismissed taking because it committed violations of the Law on Budget and Financial Management, the Law on Local Government Budgets and the Law on Local Governments, not ensuring the performance of the functions specified in the laws and not respecting the interests of the citizens of the state and the relevant administrative territory.
The Latvian government last week appealed the lifting by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of European Union (EU) sanctions against Russian oligarchs Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, Latvia’s Ministry of Justice announced in a press release. Aven is of Latvian ancestry, has obtained Latvian citizenship and reportedly lives in Latvia with his family. Aven traces his Latvian ancestry to a Red Latvian Rifleman.
“Latvia continues to express its strong support for Ukraine, condemning Russia's aggression and what has been started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, therefore in the current geopolitical conditions, Latvia will submit appeals in the cases of P. Aven and M. Fridman,” the ministry said.
In April, the General Court of the ECJ annulled the sanctioning of Aven and Fridman. It ruled that “none of the reasons set out in the initial acts is sufficiently substantiated and that the inclusion of Mr Aven and Mr Fridman on the (sanction) lists at issue was therefore not justified.”
The Latvian Ministry of Justice, filing its appeal, argues that regarding both alleged oligarchs had actively supported the seizure of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine as members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle at the time.
Lithuania boosts taxes to fund defense spending
The Lithuanian parliament or Seimas Thursday approved a package of tax increases aimed at raising the NATO-member Baltic country’s defense spending to 3 % of gross domestic product (GDP).
In a press release, the lawmaking body said “the Seimas adopted the Law on the State Defense Fund, as well as amendments to the Profit Tax, Excise Laws and other legal acts, by which it was decided to increase the profit tax rate, excise duties on fuel, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.”
In addition to the higher tax revenues, the Defense Fund will include a so-called solidarity tax on bank profits and EUR 25 million reallocated from income taxes that go to municipalities as well as voluntary contributions to the fund from organizations and individuals.
In addition to increasing excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and electronic cigarette liquids, the Seimas also raised the tax on company earnings to 16 % from 15 % and to 6 % from 5 % for small businesses.
The extension of the solidarity tax on bank earnings is expected to bring in between EUR 50-70 million next year, according to the Seimas press service.
“The funds of the defense fund will be aimed at developing the weapons, equipment and ammunition necessary to achieve the capability of a division-level military unit, creating the infrastructure necessary for the activities of the German-led NATO brigade, developing counter mobility measures for obstacles and obstacles against enemy forces, forming, financing military mobility and dual-use ( for civil and military purposes) transport infrastructure projects, and to implement the program specified in the Law on Crisis Management and Civil Protection, aimed at ensuring the strengthening and development of civil protection,” the Seimas press statement said.
Lithuania’s Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste is quoted by the Seimas saying that in addition to the tax increases, more funds for defense could be raised by issuing defense bonds, since the needs for defense expenditures will exceed 3 % of GDP. The bond would be sold to both private persons and institutional investors.
According to local media, the defense related tax rises were met with criticism from both opposition and government coalition lawmakers. A deputy from the opposition Greens and Farmers party said the excise tax rise, which must be paid on all goods subject to the tax, would hit hardest at low-income Lithuanians.
Minister of Economy and Innovation, Aušrinė Armonaitė of the coalition-member Freedom Party cautioned that setting earnings taxes too high could hurt the investment climate in Lithuania.
Midsummer celebrated with pagan revelry under St. John’s name
All three Baltic countries celebrate a two-day midsummer holiday on June 23-24 with bonfires, beer drinking, feasting and singing at public gatherings or with family and friends in the countryside, harking back to ancient and pagan traditions of greeting the summer solstice.
The revelry -much with open eroticism going back to ancient times - has been cloaked in all three countries with reference to the Christian St. John. Latvians mark the name day of Jānis, one of the most common male names, and call the celebration Jāņi. For Estonians, it is Jaanipäev , while Lithuanians celebrate Joninės.
The celebrations across all three Baltic countries are saintly in name only. Searching for a mystical blossoming fern is a common practice for the Balts in the few dark hours of the Midsummer night. Ferns don’t bloom, and the expression means finding a quiet spot to make love with one’s partner.
In all three countries, despite the long weekend of the midsummer holiday this year, there are warming up events ahead of the actual June 23 evening when the feasting, drinking and leaping over bonfires can start in earnest.
In the Latvian capital Riga, the annual Midsummer market was held on June 21 in the central Dom Square with a stage for performances and dozens of stalls selling decorative grasses, garlands and oak-leaf crowns as well as food, handicrafts and beer.
Several stands offered the soft, creamy, carraway-seed laced homemade Jānis cheese to be consumed with beer and a Soviet-era “foreign” import, pork grilled on a spit or ‘šašlik”.
The Riga Midsummer market, officially called Zāļu tirgus or market of grasses (for decoration and weaving wreathes), drew both locals and tourists.
Playing straight into Trump's hands! (or covering their bases in the increasingly likely chance American voters are crazy enough to elect him again as President!)