Aldis Gobzems

Aldis Gobzems (born October 10, 1978) is a Latvian politician and lawyer. He first rose to prominence as a lawyer who represented victims of the 2013 Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse,[1] and was the prime ministerial candidate for the Who Owns the State? party in the 2018 Latvian parliamentary elections.

Aldis Gobzems
Aldis Gobzems in 2018
Member of the 13th Saeima
Assumed office
November 6, 2018
Personal details
Born (1978-10-10) October 10, 1978
Kuldīga, Latvian SSR, USSR (now Latvia)
Political partyLaw and Order (2021-present)
Other political
affiliations		Independent (2019-2021)
Who Owns the State? (2018-2019)
Spouse(s)
Krista Gobzema
​
(m. 2015)​
ChildrenAdriana Gobzema
OccupationPolitician, lawyer
WebsitePersonal Twitter account
Facebook page
Personal Facebook account
Personal Youtube channel

After being elected into parliament, Gobzems was nominated by President Raimonds Vējonis on November 26, 2018 to attempt to form and lead a new government by becoming Prime Minister of Latvia,[2][3] but his nomination was revoked on December 10 after negotiations with other parties failed.[4][5] After an increasingly public dispute with fellow Who Owns the State? leader Artuss Kaimiņš, he was expelled from the party on February 4, 2019.[6]

He has commonly been described as a populist by media,[7] although he has described his former party as part of a "right-of-center bloc", although his public views on multiple social media are considered far-right.[8] He is married and has a daughter and a son.[9]

Gobzems began representing victims of the Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse in November 2013, the largest single loss of life in Latvia since its restoration of independence in 1991.[10] By December, the Latvian Collegium of Sworn Advocates had filed an ethic complaint against Gobzems regarding his work in representing the victims.[11] Despite this, Gobzems continued serving, and the courts ordered Maxima Latvija to begin paying compensation to victims in December 2015.[12]

On November 28, 2018, the collegium revoked Gobzems' law license over comments made about the murder of insolvence administrator Mārtiņš Bunkus that were deemed inappropriate. Gobzems criticized the action taken as politically motivated, and aimed at preventing him from obtaining the position of Prime Minister of Latvia that he had been nominated to two days prior by President Raimonds Vējonis.[13] As of April 2019, he was still fighting the decision in court.[14]

Political career

Gobzem's political activity began in 2008 as a member of Society for Political Change, to which he donated €7,804 in 2009. When that party merged with others to form the Unity faction, he continued as a member and donated €12,000 despite not running as a candidate for either party.[15] For the 2018 Latvian parliamentary election, Gobzems was chosen by the Who Owns the State? party as their prime ministerial candidate and symbolically placed as the last number on the list.[16] Under his leadership, the party won 16 seats in Saeima, tied for second most with New Conservative Party.[17]

Nomination for Prime Minister

After Jānis Bordāns was unsuccessful in negotiating a governing coalition, President Raimonds Vējonis nominated Gobzems as Prime Minister of Latvia on November 26, 2018 and gave him two weeks to form a government.[2][3] A week later, he proposed a coalition that would consist of his [Who Owns the State?]] party along with the New Conservative Party, the National Alliance, the Union of Greens and Farmers, and New Unity, despite the conservatives' objection to the Greens and Farmers' inclusion in government.[18] Fellow Who Owns the State? party leader Artuss Kaimiņš also opposed the inclusion of the Greens and Farmers,[19] leading to a breakdown in talks later in the week. Gobzems then retracted his proposal for the coalition and instead called for a non-partisan cabinet of unnamed "best of the best" industry professionals,[20] a proposal that was nearly immediately rejected by the conservatives, the nationalists, and New Unity on the grounds that it could increase the influence of the Harmony party.[21] Although he had initially called on the president to hold early elections if his proposal were to be rejected, Gobzems instead offered a new four-party coalition that would not include the Union of Greens and Farmers.[22] The president revoked Gobzems' nomination on December 10, 2018.[4][5]

Expulsion from Who Owns the State?

Following Gobzems' failure to form a government, Who Owns the State? insisted on his promotion to Minister of the Interior despite the refusal of likely prime minister nominee Krišjānis Kariņš to give him a position in the cabinet.[23] Although the party at first refused to consider a different candidate, they backed down from their demand on January 3, 2019 and instead nominated Sandis Ģirģens.[24] Kaimiņš then called on Kariņš to exclude Gobzems from the rest of the coalition building process, worsening a split between the two Who Owns the State? leaders which then lead to Gobzems' refusal to support the new Kariņš-led government as well as a vote of no confidence against Kaimiņš as party leader. Although the vote was split evenly, Kaimiņš survived the motion.[25] Relations between Gobzems and Kaimiņš reached their lowest point during the January 23 vote to confirm Kariņš' government, with the two using their speaking time during the discussion to insult and accuse one another of corruption.[26] Gobzems and four other Who Owns the State? deputies voted against the government despite their party's membership in the coalition, and two days later he testified against Kaimiņš to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau over an alleged bribe.[27][28] On February 4, Who Owns the State? members voted to expel Gobzems from the party, with Kaimiņš citing damage to the party's image as the main reason and Gobzems promising to found a new party.[6] Gobzems was subsequently removed from KPV LV's parliamentary group on February 6, 2019.[29]

Independent deputy

After being ejected from Who Owns the State?, Gobzems became one of two independent members of Saeima along with Jūlija Stepaņenko who left the Harmony party on the first day of the parliamentary session.[30] On March 12, 2019 he reiterated his promise to form a new party, predicting that the requisite five members could easily be drawn from the other parties and that by the end of the year his new party would have more seats in parliament that New Unity.[31] On April 3, he joined Stepaņenko along with three rebel members of his former party and opposition parties Harmony and Union of Greens and Farmers in voting against the 2019 state budget.[32] On April 11, he led a vote of no confidence against prime minister Krisjānis Kariņš that failed 58 to 33.[33]

Security clearance controversy

On November 20, 2018 it was announced the Latvian Constitution Protection Bureau announced that Gobzems would have to go through additional steps in the vetting process before receiving a security clearance required to access state secrets.[34] This became problematic when he was nominated by the president to form a government a week later, as potential coalition partners expressed skepticism over a potential head of government without access to sensitive information.[35] On April 18, 2019, Gobzems was invited by the Constitution Protection Bureau for an interview regarding the clearance process, after which he expressed doubt that he would be granted access and promised to appeal such a decision. On April 30, he was officially denied access to state secrets by the bureau.[36]

Law and Order party

Since being expelled from KPV LV in February 2019, Gobzems had rumoured starting a new political party.[37][38] On October 10, 2020, Gobzems held a preliminary kick-off event for his new party in Riga, promising to found his new party by November 22 the same year.[39] Due to a national state on emergency, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and introduced in Latvia on November 9,[40] that – among other things – put a temproary ban on gathering enough people to legally register a political party,[41][42] the party registration was postponed. In a December 28 interview with Latvijas Avīze, Gobzems said that he would register the party on January 8, 2021.[43]

The party, named Law and Order, went on to be founded on January 8, 2021, consisting of four Saeima MPs, including Gobzems himself. Gobzems and fellow MP Jūlija Stepaņenko were announced to be party co-chairmen.[44]

Political views

Gobzems has been described by both domestic and international media as a populist,[7] but he has called his party part of a "right-of-center bloc" of parliamentary factions.[8] During the 2018 parliamentary election, he spoke negatively of the country's political elite and claimed that politicians and the media were covering up massive scandals and keeping the population in poverty.[45] One of his most major proposals has been the elimination of the "coalition council" discussion group between parties participating in government that meets regularly to set their policy agenda, an organization that he has called unconstitutional.[46] He has also proposed reducing the amount of ministries from 13 to 6, a proposal that he backed away from after becoming the prime ministerial nominee but later re-committed to after being rejected by his potential coalition partners.[47][48]

Gobzems has been relatively open to working with the Harmony parliamentary faction, saying that quite many of his voters do not object to that, but in reality that is impossible at the moment[49] and did not invite them into his potential coalition when he was nominated to become prime minister.[18] He also refused to invite the Development/For! into coalition for allegedly being a tool of businessman and politician Edgars Jaunups,[50] but he did invite the Union of Greens and Farmers despite having previously criticized that party for connections with oligarch Aivars Lembergs.[51]

Personal life

Gobzems has been married with Krista Gobzema since 2015.[52] The couple have a daughter named Adriana (born 2016)[9] and gave birth to a son in January, 2019.[53]

References
  1. "Maxima tragedy: court rules against tying properties to 142m claim". The Baltic Times. January 9, 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  2. "Gobzems nominated for PM". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  3. "President nominates Gobzems for PM". The Baltic Times. LETA. November 27, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  4. "Gobzems out of the picture as candidacy pulled by President". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. December 10, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  5. "Latvian president calls off KPV LV leader Aldis Gobzems nomination". Baltic News Network. LETA. December 10, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  6. "KPV LV expels leader Gobzems from party". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  7. Schaart, Eline (November 26, 2018). "Latvian populist party candidate nominated for PM post". Politico. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  8. "Parties still haven't met to name potential new PM". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  9. "Alda Gobzema ģimenē gaidāms pieaugums". TVNET (in Latvian). Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  10. "Saistībā ar Zolitūdes traģēdiju grib piedzīt 100 miljonus latu" (in Latvian). Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  11. "Zvērinātu advokātu padomei sūdzas par Gobzema rīcību saistībā ar "Maxima" traģēdiju". LA.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  12. "Court orders first compensation payments to Zolitūde disaster victims". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. December 21, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  13. "PM nominee Gobzems loses lawyer's license for disciplinary violations". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  14. Krieviņš, Rūdolfs (April 8, 2019). "Tiesa Gobzema sūdzību par izslēgšanu no advokatūras turpinās skatīt maijā". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  15. "Premjera amata kandidāta dosjē: 'KPV LV' Gobzems". Delfi (in Latvian). August 29, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  16. "KPV LV party submits 13th Saeima candidate list – Gobzems at the very end". Baltic News Network. August 6, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  17. "Latvian election results show shape of new Saeima". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. October 6, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  18. "Possible shape of Latvian cabinet revealed". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  19. "KPV LV leader objects to having Greens and Farmers Union in cabinet". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  20. "Gobzems proposes government of unelected, unnamed "best of the best"". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. December 7, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  21. ""Jaunā Vienotība" un JKP neredz iespēju turpināt valdības veidošanas sarunas Gobzema vadībā". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  22. "Gobzems izteicis jaunu valdības veidošanas piedāvājumu; partijas atturīgas". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  23. "KPV LV wants Gobzems as Interior Minister; Kariņš rules him out". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  24. "Parties positive over KPV LV demands in coalition talks". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  25. "Kaimiņš retains leading position at KPV LV". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  26. "Gobzema un Kaimiņa konflikta iemesls – 'Rūdolfs bija gatavs dot 100 000'". Delfi (in Latvian). January 23, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  27. ""Gobzema piecīši" turpinās darbu KPV LV". www.diena.lv. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  28. LETA (January 25, 2019). "Gobzems bijis uz iztaujāšanu KNAB". Delfi (in Latvian). Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  29. Līcīte, Madara; Semjonova, Ella (February 6, 2019). "Gobzems booted from KPV LV's Saeima faction as well". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  30. "Jūlija Stepaņenko pamet "Saskaņas" frakciju". LA.lv (in Latvian). November 7, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  31. "Gobzems: No Saeimas frakcijām varētu atšķelties vismaz pieci deputāti". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). March 12, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  32. "2019 budget approved at last". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  33. "PM eases past Saeima confidence vote". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  34. "Gobzems would need additional vetting for security clearance". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  35. "Party talks stalling over uncertainty on Gobzems' security clearance". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  36. "Gobzems denied security clearance". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  37. "Gobzems sapulcinājis ap 20 cilvēku komandu un jauno partiju plāno dibināt rudenī". LETA (in Latvian). Public Broadcasting of Latvia. May 20, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  38. "Gobzems gada laikā sola dibināt jaunu partiju". LETA (in Latvian). Latvijas Avīze. February 10, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  39. Anstrate, Vita; Ambote, Sintija (October 10, 2020). "Esplanādē pulcējas deputāta Gobzema atbalstītāji" (in Latvian). Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  40. "Second state of emergency declared in Latvia". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. November 6, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  41. "Gobzemu no partijas dibināšanas neaptur pat ārkārtējā situācija". LETA (in Latvian). Latvijas Avīze. November 10, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  42. "Ja nebūs tiesas atļaujas, Gobzema partijas dibināšana 22. novembrī nenotiks". LETA (in Latvian). Apollo.lv. November 17, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  43. Krautmanis, Māris (December 28, 2020). "Aldis Gobzems: Pienāks diena, kad man būs jāvada valsts" (in Latvian). Latvijas Avīze. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  44. Klūga, Māris (January 8, 2021). "Gobzema jaunās partijas «Likums un kārtība» valdei virzīs arī Stepaņenko un Švecovu" (in Latvian). Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  45. "Who Is Who In Upcoming Latvian Parliamentary Elections | Re:Baltica". Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  46. "13th Saeima elections: The parties (Part 4)". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  47. "Gobzems: Man ir pietiekami augstas kaujas spējas". IRIR.lv (in Latvian). December 7, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  48. "Gobzems atsauc savu valdības piedāvājumu partijām". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  49. "Coalition with Harmony not realistic now – Gobzems". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  50. "Gobzems Attīstībai/Par! konstatē "valdības gāzēja vīrusu" un izslēdz no sarunām". www.diena.lv. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  51. "VIDEO: Premjera amata kandidātu debates". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  52. "Premjera kandidāta Alda Gobzema ģimenē gaidāms priecīgs notikums – mazulis". Kokteilis.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  53. "Aldis Gobzems brīvdienās kļuvis par tēvu dēliņam". Delfi (in Latvian). January 22, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
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