The first information about the special flights used by Krišjānis Kariņš appeared in “Latvijas Avize” at the end of October – but only for the year 2023. Later, the opposition “Joint List” received general information about a longer period from the State Chancellery at its request. It became public knowledge that Kariņš used such flights in 18 visits since 2021, a total of 613 thousand euros were paid for them, and 12 countries were named, which were the destinations of the trips.
“de facto”, even before the national holiday, the State Chancellery was asked to provide accurate information about the flight goals, dates, events attended by the prime minister and the costs of each flight. The answer came after less than a week. It turned out that the ex-premier has flown 32 times on contract flights paid for by the state budget, because only in four cases the private plane was used in one direction. All the other 14 times the expensive flights were used both on the way there and on the way back to Riga.
Special flights of Krišjānas Kariņas
Route
Dates
Costs
1. Riga-Port and back on 7-8 May 2021. 45,000 EUR 2. Riga-Ljubljana and back on 5-6 October 2021. 33,200 EUR 3. Riga-Berlin and back on 10.11.2021. 27,000 EUR 4. Riga-Paris and back on 1.12.2021. 39,600 EUR 5. Riga-Warsaw and back on 19.01.2022. 26,000 EUR 6. Riga-Berlin and back on 10.02.2022. 31,470 EUR 7. Riga-Brussels and back on 17.-18.02.2022. 28,050 EUR 8. Riga-Paris and back on 10.-11.03.2022. 44,150 EUR 9. Riga-London and back on 14.-15.03.2022. 42,960 EUR 10.
Bratislava– Riga 2.06.2022. 14,337 EUR 11.
The Hague– Riga 14.06.2022. 29,500 EUR 12. Riga-Copenhagen and resp. 30.08.2022. 37,400 EUR 13. Riga-Berlin and back on 4.09.2022. 42,600 EUR 14. Riga-Prague and back 6.-07.10.2022. 36,250 EUR 15.
Žešova– Riga 17.03.2023. 20,205 EUR 16. Riga-Chisinau and back on 1.06.2023. 35,383 EUR 17. Riga-London
20.06.2023 30,775 EUR 18. Riga-Brussels and back on 17.-18.07.2023. 49,950 EUR
In total:
613 830 EUR
The “de facto” research shows that, for example, in early June 2023, Kariņš went to the meeting of the European Political Community in Chisinau and back in the “Cessna 560XL Citation XLS+” aircraft of the VistaJet airline company. It cost 35 thousand euros. On June 20, immediately after chairing the government meeting, Kariņš went to a conference dedicated to the reconstruction of Ukraine in London. The flight of a six-person delegation in the “SmartWings” airplane “Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign+” cost 30 thousand euros.
The State Chancellery also added to several visits an explanation of why it was necessary to use special flights. Some sound quite reasonable, such as a sudden invitation from former German Chancellor Angela Merkel or French President Emmanuel Macron, the tense security situation shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the closure of the host country’s airport to commercial flights for a summit, or a series of visits after which the Prime Minister would otherwise not be able to return to Riga to high-ranking foreign guests would be received there.
However, in several cases the State Chancellery did not provide a justification for the use of special trips at all, while in others it was not convincing.
For example, they have been used on the way back from the informal European Councils on Friday night, even though it would be much cheaper to spend the night in a hotel and fly back on a commercial flight on Saturday. Also, it is not always clear whether Kariņa did not have the opportunity to fly to the event the night before, for example, using connecting flights, if there are no direct flights or they are at an inconvenient time. Also, there is no certainty whether rescheduling of the Prime Minister’s calendar, giving up any events in Riga, was considered before the decision to order a special flight.
The “de facto” interview with the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kariņas, took place even before the information was received from the State Chancellery, so it was not possible to question him about specific flights. However, certain conclusions could be drawn from the entries in Kariņas’ public agenda, which show –
many events, to which special flights were flown, were not an unexpected event for the State Chancellery.
“Informal European Councils were a time when it was absolutely impossible to predict when they would end, and commercial flights, let’s say… They don’t wait. And this basically means one more extra day for the sake of security, in order to be able to…” in the “de facto” interview said Kariņš.
To the indication that often these events are scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays, so maybe the real reason for the special flights was the reluctance to return on Saturday and devote the holidays to traveling back, the former prime minister replied: “I repeat again: could it be done differently? Sure. Should it be done differently? That is a question to be weighed.”
Kariņš repeatedly emphasizes that he did not know or think about the costs of the flights, because he focused on the content of the visits.
“If I have one mistake that I could see, it is that at that time I thought that the most important thing was the content – to be, to speak, to convince. How will I convince, how will we get air defense in Latvia, how will we get more troops in Latvia , how will we get more support for Ukraine, so that, God forbid, this war does not continue,” said Kariņš. “I didn’t think enough about whether every step… And I didn’t sit down and really didn’t calculate, I don’t know the specific costs to this day, because then I would have to calculate. Well, there is a delegation, five, six, seven, eight people – flying away, then how many extra nights at the hotel, and then you have to try to weigh it all in money…”
Kariņas has a counter-argument to the indication that it would often be the case that the cost of a delegation of ten people would exceed 20,000 euros for commercial flight tickets bought in time around Europe and a pre-booked night in an average hotel – that’s how much a one-way special flight costs on average. In addition to all this, the time spent should also be added, and the ex-premier does not know how to set a price for time.
Kariņa’s last two special flights to Brussels and back for 49,950 euros cost the country the most.
The summit of the European Union with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was held on July 17 and 18 – Monday and Tuesday. The State Chancellery claims that it was decided to use the special flight because “until the last moment” there was no information whether the summit would take place for one day or two. This does not explain why the five-person delegation could not fly to Brussels already on Sunday or use the Monday morning commercial flight. The return tickets could also probably be bought for Wednesday morning – this would mean that Kariņa’s planned vacation would start a day later.
The flight to Berlin and back on Sunday, September 4, 2022, also looks special. Together with the Prime Ministers of Estonia and Lithuania, Kariņš received the Friedrich Hayek Foundation Award for consistent defense of the free market economy there, gave one interview and met with the head of one of the Bundestag factions.
“The availability of flights was difficult, so a special flight was chosen,” the State Chancellery explained about the trip, which cost 42 thousand euros.
The current Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (“Jauna Vienotība”) was once the parliamentary secretary of Kariņa, but in terms of flights, she promises to act more modestly and not to fly special flights unless absolutely necessary. However, she is in no hurry to overly criticize her predecessor, the current foreign minister, Kariņa.
“Perhaps it is difficult to understand why the head of the government has chosen to do something like this or something else, but explanation definitely helps. Telling what decisions have been made, maybe they are important for Latvia, and as a result its costs for Latvia are adequate,” said Siliņa. “I have also asked Mr. Kariņš himself to perhaps try to tell himself again why such an approach was taken. But regarding violations… I do not see at the moment that anything has been violated on the part of the law. I think that so far there is no evidence that the law would be violated and I would have to demand some kind of responsibility from Mr. Kariņš. But the fact that an explanation is necessary is clear.”
It is already known that the opposition has not given up on this issue.
Although the first request to the Prime Minister was rejected by the Saeima, the “United List” has submitted a new one, in which much more detailed questions are asked about Kariņš’s flights than before. Behind the scenes, the appearance of this topic is not linked to the opposition, but to the internal competition of the “New Unity” in connection with the approach of the European Parliament elections.
After getting acquainted with the data provided by the State Chancellery about Kariņš’s flights, “de facto” wanted to ask questions to its director Jānis Citskovskis as well, in order to understand who really has the final say in the planning of business trips. For example, who decides that uncertainty about the exact time of the event is a valid reason for using a several times more expensive private flight – the prime minister, his office or officials. However, Citskovskis could not give an interview this week because he was on a business trip in France.
2023-11-26 18:37:52
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