Song and Dance Festival Ends, More Canadian troops coming
Economy- inflation takes a big dip
The most Latvian of all musical/cultural events, the 27th Latvian Song Festival and 17th Dance Festival, marking the 150th anniversary of the first Latvian “singing festival” in 1873 ended with a grandious concert on July 9. Some 1 000 singers from choirs around the then province of Czarist Russia gathered for the first event, 40 000 singers, dancers, and other performers from around the world were present for the festival the just ended. The last notes of the concert by around 16 000 singers were followed by several hours of both choir members and the audience engaging in partly led (by Latvian actor) and partly spontaneous mass singing into the early morning. Buses and trams leaving the Mežaparks amphitheater were filled with people singing on their way home – a tradition at almost all recent Song Festivals. The next Song and Dance Festival will take place in 2028.
Latvia’s outgoing President Egils Levits addressed the start of the opening Song Festival parade on July 2 saying that the first song festival also marked the birth of Latvians as a single nation. Like the first song festival, Sunday’s parade “brings “together people of various regions, Kurland (western Latvia), Vidzeme (north central Latvia), Selonia (the south east) and Latgale (the east),” he said.
This year’s festival will go down in history as having been addressed by two presidents, since newly-elected Edgars Rinkēvičs was inaugurated on July 8 and addressed the opening of the final gala concert the following day. “With song we have achieved freedom, with song we have gone to war and with song we have won victory. With a song tonight, let's unite, let's sing, let's dance, uniting all Latvian people,” he said in a short speech
Song and Dance Festival participants in national costumes. Photo: Juris Kaža
Riga also hosted the Song and Dance Festival under two mayors. Riga Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis, in a long tweet early on July 3, said he had effectively lost the support of the City Council in the Latvian capital over the handling of allegations of misuse of funds in the municipal transport department and was resigning.
His resignation is a major setback for the reformist "rainbow" coalition of leftist, liberal, conservative, and nationalist parties elected in an extraordinary vote in 2020 after the previous city administration under mayor Nils Ušakovs, who was removed under a cloud of corruption allegations and criminal investigations. Deputy mayor Vilnis Ķirsis of the New Unity (JV) party took over as acting mayor after Staķis resigned and was formally in charge of the Latvian capital during the latter half of the festival program.
Canada to boost troop numbers in Latvia, building up to a brigade
With the Song Festival over, Latvia hosted a couple of visits in a run-up to the NATO Summit in Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told journalists on July 10 that Canada will significantly enhance its military presence in Latvia, initially adding 1200 soldiers to double the number of troops in the country and signing a roadmap agreement to station a full combat-ready brigade by 2026.
The additional soldiers will “reinforce and enhance land, maritime, air and special operations in eastern and central Europe,” Trudeau said, speaking at the Ādaži military base where the NATO Enhanced Forward Battle Group is stationed.
At the same time Latvia’s Defense Minister Ināra Mūrniece and Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand signed a roadmap “determining the next steps in increasing the Canada-led NATO Extended Presence Battle Group in Latvia from battalion to brigade level.”
A statement from the Latvian Defense Ministry quotes Mūrniece as saying that the roadmap agreement “reflects in detail the work already done both in the field of political and military planning and cooperation, as well as defines the future work and on the way to the NATO brigade. Canada's stated commitment to more than double the number of Canadian soldiers stationed in Latvia by 2026 is a clear and unequivocal confirmation of Canada's intention to strengthen the security and defense capabilities of not only Latvia, but also the entire eastern flank of NATO."
The roadmap agreement expands on a declaration by Canada and Latvia at the Madrid NATO summit that committed to expanding the Canadian presence in Latvia to a full brigade.
In addition to boosting its troop presence, Canada has already announced that it would this year station 15 Leopard 2 tanks and support personnel in Latvia, the Defense Ministry noted.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš said that Latvia had recently adopted the necessary legislation to create the new Selonia Military Training Area in southeastern Latvia that would, among other functions, house some of the planned NATO brigade.
Kariņš also said that the government was advancing to 2024 from 2027 the time when Latvia would spend 3 % of its gross domestic product (GDP) on national defense.
Good economic news?
Consumer prices in June were up 7.9 % in Latvia from June 2022, showing a sharp drop in the inflation rate from 12.1 % in May and 15.1% in April, Latvia’s official statistics portal reported July 11.
Prices also fell 1.4 % in June from May, the report said. The last time inflation was in single digits was in February 2022, when consumer prices rose 8.7 % from February 2021.
Prices for food and housing-related services continued to rise. “Over the year, prices within the group of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 14.4 %. Price rise for bread (31.1 %), bakery products (12.2 %), pasta products (17.6 %) had the strongest upward influence on the average price level within the group,” the statistics portal said.
It reported that “The average level of prices of goods and services related to housing rose by 13.1 %. Over the year, the most significant growth in the prices was for heat energy (27.0 %). Upturn was recorded in prices of electricity, natural gas, solid fuels, maintenance charges in multi-occupied buildings, water supply, refuse collection, materials for the maintenance and repair of the dwelling, sewage collection, as well as services for the maintenance and repair of the dwelling.”
At the same time, prices of goods and services related to transport fell by 12.4 %, mainly affected by the fall in prices of motor fuels 26.4 %. Prices of diesel went down by 29.7 %, and of gasoline – by 24.2 %.
Peteris Strautiņš, a senior economist at Latvia’s Luminor Bank noted that the month to month fall in the inflation rate “was new monthly deflation record, the previous one was -1.1%, it has held since August 2003.”
He notes that food and housing costs continue to rise. “Compared to last June, the impact of food and housing on the price level was strongly upward, these items accounted for 78% of the total price rise.”
Looking ahead, Strautiņš forecasts that “In July and August, annual inflation is expected to decrease by another four percentage points…a period of deflation could begin at the beginning of the new year, which will not be very long, with inflation returning in the second half of next year.”