On 27 September, President of Latvia Egils Levits visited Saldus Music and Art School during his working visit to the region. The fourth discussion between President Levits and youngsters from Saldus region organised in scope of debate series ‘#Satversme100: future values’ focused on the way we perceive terms like ‘choice’, ‘rights’ and ‘duties’ defined in Satversme.
The main focus of debate was election participation. Commenting on whether voting is a choice or a duty, President Levits pointed out that we should think of voting as a right and also a moral obligation, a duty that allows us to do something good and pleasant. ‘During the Awakening, people rallied for free elections that we were denied for five decades. Today Ukrainians are also forced to fight for their democracy, chance to vote in free elections and thus shape the future of Ukraine. It is a natural propensity of humans to shape the environment in which we live, and elections is the way to do it,’ President explained. Youngsters, in turn, underlined that those who do not vote should not complain about how things are run.
Participants all agreed that voting for specific political parties or politicians is a matter of trust. It is a choice that should not be taken lightly. According to President, we must all think of ideal Latvia, and what it means to us, because our ideas will be different. ‘Democracy is the art of compromise – it is our choice of ideals that we want to support,’ Egils Levits underlined.
When discussing participation in civic activities, youngsters emphasised the importance of education and work experience as prerequisites for meaningful civic participation and political engagement in particular. School councils is one of ways young people can participate and achieve higher level of civic engagement, said youngsters. Moreover, young people think that political participation is one of their duties. One of the examples mentioned by them was Denmark where political participation of population is very high relative to the rest of the world.
Young people and President of Latvia also talked about dispersing myths about the dishonest motives of all politicians. As President Levits indicated, the ‘politicians are all crooks’ mindset drives people away from affairs of the state.
Other issues discussed during the debate included proposed changes in the Law on Local Governments, which would allow Latvian citizen who had reached the age of 16 take part in local elections, and decision to introduce compulsory national defence service.
President of Latvia was joined by eight youngsters: Madara Zadovska (Year 10, Druva Secondary School), Gvido Mēteris (Year 11, Druva Secondary School), Ance Edele (Year 10, Saldus Secondary School), Giorgia Chang Zhang (Year 11, Exupery International School), Niklāvs Bašķis (Year 4, Saldus Vocational School), Aleksandrs Fadeičevs (Brocēni Secondary School), Evelīna Kronberga (Year 9, Saldus Secondary School) and Kristiāns Priedītis (Year 11, Brocēni Secondary School).
Discussion between President Levits and young people was moderated by journalist Jānis Krēvics.
