The board of the Republic (Republika) expressed no confidence in the co-chairman of the party Vyacheslav Dombrovsky (Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis).
It all started with a scandal. Sandis Ģirģens’ last working day as Minister of the Interior was June 3, 2021. On that day, he had to turn in things, including a government-owned Apple iPhone XR worth about 1,000 euros. However, according to the program Nekā personīga (TV3), the former minister wanted to keep the phone.
The owner of the telephones is the Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Iekšlietu ministrijas informācijas centrs) and the employees of the Ministry, in particular the Minister, do not have a legal opportunity to leave the issued devices for personal use. At the request of Sandis Girgens, the head of the center, Liga Lapiņa, tried to resolve the issue in such a way that the phone would be destroyed “on paper”.
Now in the court of the Latgalsky suburb of Riga there is a trial on the fact of abuse of office. But Sandis Girgens is only a witness in the process.
Immediately after the release of the story, Vyacheslav Dombrovsky announced that Sandis Girģens should suspend his co-chairmanship in the party due to the smartphone scandal.
In response, Sandis Girgens explained that he considers the criminal proceedings fabricated in order to take revenge on him and honest officials for violating the tradition of unfair purchases at the Information Center. He also stated that he was suing Nekā personīga and responded to criticism.
“What would you do if your brother in the family (I don’t mean my brother Kaspar Girgens, but a metaphorical comparison with my colleague Vyacheslav Dombrovsky, with whom we founded the Respublika party together), a close person and friend surreptitiously stuck a knife in the back? What if a teammate, knowing that you are innocent, still demands your blood instead of helping to fight the system?” Sandis Girgens wrote on his Facebook page.
The public skirmish did not end there. As the Ukrainian song says, we will never be brothers. The board of the party, which was attended by four of its six members – Sandis Girgens, Kaspar Girgens, Pucens and Evgeny Korshenkov, canceled the meeting of the party scheduled for February 26. It was planned to elect Vyacheslav Dombrovsky as the sole chairman of the board.
The official reason: 300 people were not allowed to join the party, about 250 of whom represent the wing of the party’s co-chairman Sandis Girgens.
The board decided that the general meeting of party members will be held in March. It is planned to take a decision on amending the charter, providing for one chairman in the future. And, judging by current events, it will not be Dombrovsky.
On Tuesday, February 15, Vyacheslav Dombrovsky commented on the board’s decision on Facebook:
“The Respublika Party expressed no confidence in its founder, Vyacheslav Dombrovsky.” You don’t often read headlines like this. An explanation is required. Firstly, it was not the party that expressed “distrust”, but four members of the board (out of six): the Girgens brothers, Eriks Pucens and Yevgeny Korshenkov.
Further. Some time ago, it became clear to us that we were not going along with the Girgenses and the Puzens. And it’s not just about the need to blush for the office phone, which seems to have been appropriated by the former Minister of the Interior – co-chairman of the party. Very different values. We created a constructive and professional center party, but, unfortunately, we let dishonest people on board, whose goal was to seize the party from the very beginning and put it on the path of naked populism.
I’ll say more. I am completely sure that on February 26, at the meeting of the founders, a decision would have been made by a convincing majority of votes to throw out the Girgens and Puzens from the leadership of the party and elect a new board. Only a miracle could save them. And a miracle happened. The “miracle” has a first and last name: Evgeny Korshenkov.
The man with whom they created the party together and whom they considered their closest comrade-in-arms suddenly went over to the side of the Girgens and Pucenses. Although just a few days ago I found their behavior “unacceptable” (actually, I spoke harsher about them). Korshenkov’s betrayal created an advantage in the government (4 against 2) and allowed the Girgens to accept a hundred other of their supporters into the party and begin the process of expelling from the party those who were not their supporters in any way.
What is Evgeny Korshenkov’s motivation? He did not explain it to his yesterday’s comrades and like-minded people. Maybe because the court of first instance recently ordered to recover from him 147 thousand euros to compensate for the losses caused to the company Rēzeknes Satiksme? And I made it clear to Yevgeny that until his innocence is proved by an appeal in the district court, he cannot apply for the position of a member of the party’s board.
Be that as it may, it is not so important what the thirty pieces of silver were calculated in.
It is important that a party, a political organization is something more than a registration number in the business register. These are ideas and the ability to carry and explain them. It’s the people and the team. You can steal your registration number. You can find the weakest link and buy it for some promises. But you can’t steal ideas if you’re not smart enough to understand them. Not all people will follow those who will turn the “Republic” into something in between KPV 2.0 and a national association?
There are ideas, a head on their shoulders, and the team is ready to continue working. And we will find a way to continue our work and fulfill the mission for which we created the Republic Party.”
A bit of history. Attorney-at-law Sandis Girgens became Minister of the Interior in January 2019. He was nominated to work in the government by the KPV LV party. And by June 2021, this once popular political force was almost completely dissolved. Other parties in the government of Krisjanis Karins decided that the work would go better without the people from the collapsed KPV LV – Welfare Minister Ramona Petravici and Interior Minister Sandis Girgens.
At the end of August 2021, Sandis Girgens and Seimas deputy Vyacheslav Dombrovsky, who was elected to parliament from the Harmony party, founded the Respublika party.
