While the parliament was considering the draft decision “Declaration on the criminal Russification of Latvia by the Soviet occupation regime and the prevention of its linguistic consequences”, Rosļikovs volunteered himself to take the Saeima rostrum and speak out against the inclusion of this draft decision on the agenda.
At the end of his speech, the deputy shouted a phrase in Russian. All debates in the Saeima chamber take place in Latvian only and, as reported a week ago by LSM, the prohobition on using other languages is being extended across the Saeima premises as a whole.
Predictably, Rosļikovs’ linguistic provocation met its expected response with loud objections voiced from his fellow members of parliament.
After that, the deputy speaker of the Saeima, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica (“New Unity”), suggested that Rosļikovs be expelled for one sitting.
“The vote is to expel Rosļikovs from the chamber for unethical behavior, using Russian in a Saeima session, showing disrespect for the Saeima and its members,” said Parliament Speaker Daiga Mieriņa (Greens and Farmers’ Union).
63 of 100 Saeima deputies voted to show Rosļikovs the exit, and with the result in, he duly left the hall, having achieved the minor publicity coup he was no doubt seeking a couple of days before local elections take place.