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Thursday, 28.03.2024, 11:39
Few Saeima members serve or want to serve in Home Guard
At the moment, only two MPs are members of the Home Guard -
Vilnis Kirsis (Unity) and Veiko Spolitis (Unity). Kirsis, a member of the Home
Guard Student Battalion, says that combining service in the Home Guard and work
at Saeima is not hard at all: "That's just one weekend a month, plus a
nine-day camp during the summer. And the system is quite flexible. If you
cannot make it one time, that's not a tragedy, you can make up for it at some
other time." Kirsis has observed that intensity and quality of training
received by Home Guard members is improving, as is the quality of technical
equipment of the Home Guards.
The newspaper spoke to several young and athletic Saeima
members, asking what was keeping them from joining the Home Guard. Ivars Zarins
(Harmony) said he did not have enough time as his work at Saeima was taking too
much time. Janis Upenieks (Unity), a former Youth Guard and Scout Movement
member, who once even considered joining the Special Tasks Unit, also said he
did not have enough time at the moment. On the other hand, Viktors Valainis
(Unity) said he was considering joining the Home Guard sometime in the future.
MP Edgars Putra (Greens/Farmers) said that, had he only have
to work at Saeima, he might be able to combine his work with service in the
Home Guard, but he was also the parliamentary secretary at the Finance
Ministry, a very time-consuming job.
Ainars Latkovskis (Unity), chairman of Saeima Defense,
Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee, explained that it would
not be right for him, an official supervising the defense sector, to also be a
member of the Home Guard. While Artuss Kaimins said he was a pacifist who did
not like guns and arms at all.
Saeima member Rihards Kols (National Alliance), who six
months ago was saying that he was "just about" to enlist in the Home
Guard, told the newspaper now that he had not made much progress and had
postponed joining the Home Guard for another year.