The new ruling coalition of the Riga City Council has stood out right from the beginning with brilliant plans to benefit the people of Riga. Two posts of vice mayors have been created, the mayor and vice mayors of Riga will have a total of 11 advisers. So at least jobs are being created!
The new council has not abolished the fee for parking cars in several areas in the center of Riga as promised. Now the center of Riga will be visited by fewer people, and it will delight the restaurants affected by Covid-19 - it will be possible to save by dismissing unnecessary chefs and dishwashers. That's basically all for now.
Oh, yes - the new Riga City Council has also created a misunderstanding, practically driven to desperation the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum and the religious congregation Šamir, which established and maintains this museum.
The fact of the matter is that it is still unclear whether the museum will be able to remain in the old place or whether it will have to move out. The museum is located in the historical Spīķeri complex at Maskavas Street 14a. It's not quite in the former ghetto area, but right next to it - guides can point directly at it after visits - that's where the ghetto started across the street, where people were herded and then methodically killed during the German occupation just because they were Jewish. The museum has been open for ten years and has created an exhibition that emotionally tells the story of the Holocaust, the suffering of people who have been starved, shot and burned alive, with metaphors of multimedia art. The museum does not exaggerate anything, does not humiliate or falsify anything - it tells about a terrible chapter that existed in the history of Riga. In any case, the museum is an important part of the city's culture. It can be seen that people have invested a lot of work and money in creating it. The museum is not so easy to take and move to another place.
However, the 10th anniversary of the museum comes along with the 10 years which were recorded in the lease agreement between the association that established the museum and the Riga City Council. The museum has been praised and the society has been supported by many senior officials and influential politicians, but nothing has been done until the last moment to dispel concerns about the possible expulsion of it from Spīķeri. Even now, the position of the Riga City Council is still unclear and there is no serious decision. There is only a half-measure that postpones the problem for a short time. It could have happened that the museum would be on its premises illegally for five days. Namely, the agreement expires on October 22, but the meeting of the Riga Property Department, where the issue of its extension or non-extension would be on the agenda, would be convened only on October 27. At least this has been remedied and the contract has been extended for a month. A month. But then what?
It seems that the new leadership of the Riga City Council is deliberately asking for a spanking. The Holocaust Museum is not some kind of a shop... although even in the case of a shop, pub or warehouse, people should not be hassled like that. The municipality must treat both entrepreneurs and any resident with respect, as well as the association that carries out cultural and historical work. Šamir is perhaps not the most influential Jewish organization in Latvia, but influential enough that if it gets angry, news of the Riga City Council's interesting attitude towards the Ghetto and Holocaust Museum will spread far and wide around the world.
It could happen that not only the gentlemen of the capital, but also the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs and even higher above could be made to stand in front of everyone to blush and blanch.
Presumably, the chairman of the Riga City Council, Mārtiņš Staķis, is not a monstrous anti-Semite who spends his time pondering how to evict the Ghetto and Holocaust Museum from the premises. This is about something else. The new Riga coalition does not stop rejoicing in its acquired power, euphorically learns its benefits, shares positions and areas of influence, but they have forgotten the most important thing - that the Riga City Council must also do some things. The museum case was not born yesterday. The contract was coming to an end, the deadline was approaching faster and faster. Even if some younger deputies didn't know it, basically the same coalition that is now in the City Council has been in power in Riga since the overthrow of the old City Council - three ministries with the "Development/For!" controlled Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development in the lead sent administrators to the capital’s municipality. And it is hard to believe that representatives of Šamir haven’t asked, written and told politicians. The problem is not only about the term of the lease agreement, but it can be seen that there is already a long-term conflict with the company Spīķeru Nami, which manages the territory next to the museum. In September, Šamir sent a letter to the Saeima deputies, in which they state: "In recent years, the museum has experienced consistent aggression from private business, which wants to take over the territory with the help of courts, threats and complaints to various authorities, trying to exclude the museum from Spīķeri district."
It is impossible to judge from the sidelines which side is right - neighbors who are bickering should look for peace or legal solutions, but let's imagine what Šamir might think here! The City Council hesitates to extend the lease, the City Council extends the contract for only a month - so what suspicions may arise here?
It would be good if the new council finally started working, instead of a doing a noble parade through the town hall. Otherwise, more and more other cases will come after this one. Here is an obvious trap pit waiting for Staķis to fall into it with his entire entourage. It is expected that the council leadership will now start moving to turn the defect into an effect and posture as good problem solvers. But this is already characteristic of this coalition, and there is a similar style in the government coalition as well - first to create a huge problem out of nothing, and then to pompously speak out as ones who stop the nonsense. Silly Walks.