Latvia will host the NATO summit in Riga this November. Latvia joined NATO and the EU in 2004. However, the NATO summit aside, things may get very interesting in Latvia this fall if the Mayor of Ventspils, Aivars Lembergs, decides to run for parliament in the national elections in October.

The last few days have seen a small crisis in the Latvian government as several cabinet ministers resigned and there was no longer majority support for the Cabinet of Ministers. The crisis was put on hold when the government had an extraordinary meeting to approve seven new ministers that were nominated. This now means that Latvia is governed by a minority government which may or may not hold until the elections in October.

With the above as a backdrop, in comes Aivars Lembergs, the mayor of the port city of Ventspils, and formerly the Communist mayor. Lembergs is said to be considering running for the parliament in the October elections, and could possibly become the Prime Minister. Lembergs is a ???????go to guy??????? and uses his wealth to finance and support politicians he favors, and he has connections to several different political parties.

Critics call him the Latvian Lukashenko (a reference to the President of Belarus) because of his strongman tactics, his control of the local press, and his distaste for transparency, and the Nongovernmental Agencies (NGO) that support open government. It doesn????????t help that Lembergs once told a newspaper, Bizness & Baltija, that it would be improper for Latvia to criticize Lukashenko’s regime, since Latvia has been a democratic state for only a short time. In the past he has attacked the Soros Foundation-Latvia, a NGO established to strengthen democratic institutions and practices in Latvia. He has expressed his belief that NGOs with a political purpose should be shutdown. He opposed Latvia joining NATO and expressed his view that the West has a neo-colonial policy toward Latvia. He also believes that the European Union funnels funds to areas that benefit the interests of Western business interests. Many of his critics fear that if he is elected to parliament and becomes the Prime Minister, Lembergs would setback all the progress that Latvia has made since its independence from the Soviet Union.

Over the years Lembergs has been accused of corruption, financial impropriety and using his wealth to garner political influence. Lembergs is reported to be one of the wealthiest men in Latvia, and is alleged to have offshore interests in Ventspils Nafta, a conglomerate involved in oil and petroleum products transit, real estate, shipping, and printing and publishing????????they own the local newspaper which enthusiastically supports Lembergs. He allegedly has a maze of offshore companies, some in the names of his children and wife.

Although Lembergs has been accused of corruption for many years he has never been convicted of any crimes. Rumors spreading through Latvia say that the Latvian Corruption Bureau may be hot on his trail and the web of his offshore companies may be unraveled with the help of the Swiss government. This may be an incentive for him to run for the parliament, because if elected to the parliament he would be immune from prosecution.

Although many of his critics accuse him of being a Latvian Lukashenko, the truth is that he is probably closer to a big city mayor in the United States during the 1950s or 1960s, albeit with a Soviet flair. He may be more like a Latvian version of Chicago Mayor Richard Daly than a Lukashenko. Lembergs, like some of the former US big city mayors, knows how to keep his constituents happy. He is very popular with the citizens of Ventspils and has been mayor for 18 years. A former Communist official, he was elected after the fall of the Soviet Union when most of the former Communists were soundly defeated. He has provided exceptional public services, especially by Latvian standards. Driving through Ventspils, one can see the tree lined parks, the well maintained brick paved sidewalks, an abundance of playgrounds for children, and very decent streets absent potholes. Many of his constituents have a feeling that is summed up in the old US political axiom: He may be a crook but he is our crook.

With the inter-party fighting that is currently going on in Latvia and a government in disarray, and with most Latvians feeling that most of their politicians are already corrupt, this fall could see the election of Lembergs and a very interesting time for politics in Latvia.