The Ādaži municipality police have already twice issued penalties to the private individual on private land for flying the flags of Latvia and Ukraine together – a gesture of solidarity that many people will think reasonable and even laudable, but which in the opinion of the municipality’s Administrative Commission constitutes an egregious violation of the National Flag Law.
The punishment was handed out despite the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – which is generally considered to know its flag protocol – that the law was not violated.
Carnikava resident Raimonds Garenčiks has been presented with the penalties and expressed perhaps understandable exasperation that his attempt to show solidarity with Ukraine has been officially censured.
“I’ve had that flag there for four years, so – the Ukrainian flag and the Latvian flag. The Latvian flag is placed on top, and the Ukrainian flag is below,” says Garenčiks.
He freely admits that he has even flown other flags on his pole – though always with the Latvian flag uppermost.
“When there were events in Belarus, when Putin sent his riot police to calm them all down and started brutally beating people on the streets… do you remember? – as a show of solidarity, I put up the Belarusian flag then too,” the man recalls.
In February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Raimonds also expressed his civic stance and support for the Ukrainian people with a flag. At one point there were even three flags on the mast.
Run it up the flagpole…
Raimonds has been expressing his personal attitude with two flags on one mast for four years now. Yet only now has his civic stance become unacceptable to the Ādaži municipality police who slapped him with a fine.
Raimonds contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the question of whether he had indeed violated the law by flying the Latvian and Ukrainian flags on the same flagpole and received a response.
“Considering that the flags are displayed vertically on the mast and the Latvian flag is at the top, as the first, the flag law has not been violated,” the ministry stated.
However, the Ādaži County Administrative Commission interpreted the law differently, believing that Raimonds had violated the law. He was given a warning for the flags displayed on Raimonds’ property by the municipal police on July 16.
“Neither the Latvian National Flag Law nor Cabinet Regulation No. 405 provides for a deviation from the protocol procedure established in the law, that the Latvian national flag and other flags could be placed one below the other. Respectively, nowhere is it stipulated that those flags can be one below the other. Therefore, we consider this type of violation to be a violation,” explained Jānis Veinbergs, Chairman of the Ādaži Municipality Administrative Commission.
The Ādaži municipal police have continued to “visit” Raimonds and appear to be extremely deficient in interpersonal skills, though they have now managed to generate considerable publicity for the municipality – though possibly not of quite the kind they would prefer.
Even on Ukraine’s Independence Day, he was fined 200 euros for violating the National Flag Law, and later – on September 17 – a fine of an astonishing 700 euros.
“We accept that the commission’s decision is that the person has committed an administrative violation, because there are nine members of the commission who reviewed the case and recognized that there was a violation. Since the person in question continued the violation, the police have another process in place for him to show disrespect for the national flag in this way, for not respecting the commission’s decision,” said Oskars Feldmanis, chief of the Ādaži municipality police.
…and see who salutes it
Even the author of the Latvian National Flag Law is confused about the decisions of the Ādaži County Administrative Commission and the municipal police.
“No act currently in force prohibits the use of two, three or five flags on one mast. There is no such prohibition,” explained Sintija Stipre, the author of the National Flag Law.
“The Latvian national flag is guaranteed all due respect. It is used on a white, perfect flagpole, the flag is clean, it meets the requirements of the law – the prescribed proportions, and the colors are also correct. The fact that it is used together with the flag of another country – in fact, the law does not prohibit doing so,” Stipre pointed out.
The author of the Latvian National Flag Law points out that even if it could be argued that historically accepted flag-flying etiquette could have been violated, that is by no means the same as violating the law and certainly does not justify the imposition of heavy finacial penalties.
“Okay, let’s say, maybe he could do something like that, with the Latvian flag on the flagpole, and maybe he could use the Ukrainian national flag on the flagpole at his house or residential building. But there is no basis for imposing any penalties for not observing flag etiquette, and the law does not provide for it,” Stipre said.
“In fact, if we were to look at it so scrupulously, then half of the population of Latvia would have to be punished just because, perhaps in the opinion of the police, they did not arrange the flags in that way or in that order. We are reaching the point of absurdity,” the author of the law pointed out.
As a result of the conflict, now only the Ukrainian flag flies on Raimonds’ private property.
“I believe that this shows my solidarity with this country. I also donate every month, to support Ukraine. This is my support,” said Raimonds.
Raimonds has appealed the decisions of the municipal police. The police chief promised to take into account the information he received from “Studio 4”.
Yet at the building where the Carnikava police station of the Ādaži municipality is located, LTV’s reporters could not help noticing that a flag was flying on only one of the two masts. The other was left empty. And, as the author of the National Flag Law explains, this itself is a very significant violation of the National Flag Law. The municipal police can now be expected to slap themselves with a stiff fine.