“The Civic Alliance – Latvia is concerned about the ZZS proposal to abolish the Society Integration Fund (SIF),” such a news item appeared four days ago on Latvian Public Media. In the organization’s view, such a proposal can be seen as an attempt to weaken civil society, participation, and the independent mass media environment, as it fits into a broader trend of restricting democratic processes in Latvia. Inc. looked into what exactly the Civic Alliance wanted to say with this…
It appears that the Civic Alliance functions as a major common denominator for representatives of the prime minister’s party “New Unity,” whose associations have received at least one million euros over the past three years – they are united not only by people, but also by an address. The largest sums of money among those linked to the Civic Alliance have gone to organizations registered in Riga, at 13 Alberta Street, a posh Art Nouveau building that is partly owned by the Soros Foundation.
In fact, every person who is on the board of the Civic Alliance is an official in other organizations as well, which also receive SIF, that is, taxpayers’ money. Once a year, everyone meets to talk at the “Conversation Festival Lampa,” which, of course, also receives funds not only from SIF, but also directly from participants.
The SIF budget is about 37 million euros per year.
To be continued…
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/iesaistitie-bazijas-par-siles-likvidesanu/
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