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INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIGA 000392 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL LG
SUBJECT: Coalition nominates Valdis Zatlers for President 
 
 
¶1. Summary: On May 22, the ruling coalition announced that they were 
not able to reach agreement on either of the two presidential 
candidates - Karina Petersone (Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way) 
and Maris Riekstins (People's Party) - and nominated a new 
presidential candidate - Valdis Zatlers.  Zatlers is not an official 
member of any political party and there is no recent information on 
his political affiliations, though he categorized himself to a 
reporter as a "conservative".  Zatlers is a surgeon and head of the 
National Trauma and Orthopedic Hospital. If all MPs (58) of the 
ruling coalition vote for Zatlers, he would acquire the required 
support (51 votes) to become president. However, the Saeima elects 
the president by secret ballot and, due to the coalition's slim 
majority, the outcome is unpredictable. The last minute entry of 
former constitutional court chief Aivars Endzins further complicates 
the path ahead. End of Summary. 
 
¶2. Valdis Zatlers was born on 22 March 1955, in Riga. In 1979, he 
graduated from Riga Medical Institute. He spent a year as a visiting 
scholar in the US in 1990 at Yale University and Syracuse 
University. He has been working as a surgeon since 1979, and has 
been the head of the National Trauma and Orthopedic Hospital since 
¶1994. Zatlers has leading positions in two associations: as 
president of the Latvian Arthroscopy Association and vice-president 
of the Latvian Orthopedics Association. Though he is prominent in 
the area of medical practice, he is not known for being actively 
involved in the re-organization of the health care sector, which is 
considered one of the most difficult and unsettled sectors for 
reform in Latvia. His only known previous political involvement was 
serving as a board member of the Popular Front (Tautas fronte) from 
1988-1989, when it was agitating for Latvian independence from the 
Soviet Union. 
 
¶3. Though in general his public profile has been very low, Zatlers 
received considerable attention in the media in March 2003. On the 
basis of a report by the KNAB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) which 
recommended bringing criminal charges against Zatlers for abuse of 
office, then-Health Minister Aris Auders (New Era) suspended Zatlers 
as head of the hospital. Zatlers was accused of purchasing 
low-quality implants for the hospital from the companies of his wife 
and a colleague. After a short period, and without any new evidence, 
then-Prime Minister Einars Repse (New Era) unexpectedly ordered 
Auders to reinstate Zatlers. A month later, it was concluded that 
the implants corresponded to the required quality, and the criminal 
case was closed in May 2006. Throughout the scandal, Zatlers 
received the broad public support of the hospital's doctors and 
staff. Interestingly, two months before the conflict, the People's 
Party had asked for the resignation of Health Minister Auders, which 
was later construed as an attempt to protect Zatlers from audits of 
his hospital by Dainis Titavs, advisor to Prime Minister Repse. 
 
¶4. Zatlers is also taking press heat for his admission that he 
accepted additional payment from patients beyond the normal fees. 
Zatlers says that he never asked for the money, but did not decline 
it when patients offered it.  Zatlers is saying that he should get 
credit for being truthful about the situation and noted that unlike 
some of his colleagues, he never demanded money to give patients' 
higher priority on waiting lists.  Nevertheless, the more liberal 
media and non-political elite are criticizing the notion of a 
President who has admitted to taking such money and almost certainly 
did not pay taxes on it.  (Comment: The Latvian public is unlikely 
to see this as anything unusual in a doctor, but it is not clear if 
they would view this as a negative for a head of state.  End 
comment.) 
 
¶5. The media also reports on two smaller conflicts, both with public 
authorities, involving Zatlers. In November 2002, Zatlers 
demonstrated an unyielding position in a dispute with the National 
Health Insurance Agency. He announced that the hospital would be 
closed and no patients accepted if the National Health Insurance 
Agency did not pay its debt to the hospital. The parties eventually 
reached an agreement. In December 2003, Zatlers was criticized by 
the Ministry of Health for his statement that the hospital was not 
able to manage extra funding. Afterwards, Zatlers announced that 
there had been some misunderstandings and that the hospital had the 
capacity to manage additional funding. 
 
¶6. Comment: The announcement by the coalition parties that they were 
not able to reach agreement on their previously announced and 
publicly-debated presidential candidates confirmed the predicted 
scenario that in fact there have been two parallel processes: public 
nomination of presidential candidates and closed discussions among 
members of a very narrow circle of the political elite. Though the 
appearance of a non-discussed candidate had been expected, the 
identification of Zatlers as that candidate has brought some 
surprise and criticism, in particular, for his lack of political 
experience (both foreign and domestic) and for being outside of any 
political party.  Commentators have remarked that his candidacy is 
just "a compromise of party ambitions" and that the prior submission 
of candidates was a theater in "an effort to fool the nation that 
democracy does exist in this country".  Zatlers did himself no 
favors when a reporter asked him to name three reasons why he wanted 
to be president and he could only respond with one ("I have the 
ability to communicate, listen and make decisions.  I wouldn't want 
 
RIGA 00000392  002 OF 002 
 
 
to praise myself more than that").  The main concern voiced by civil 
society groups and the media is that there is no information 
available on his views and stances on issues. 
 
Waser