Parliament backs new Gors management law at first reading
Thursday 20th August 2026 on 15:45 in
Latvia
Latvia’s parliament on Thursday backed at first reading an alternative bill setting out a management model for the Latgale Embassy Gors concert hall, LSM reported.
The model was drafted by a working group established by the Saeima’s Education, Culture and Science Committee. Unlike an earlier proposal, it would not create a foundation to run Gors, but would strengthen the Culture Ministry’s role in managing the concert hall.
Under the bill, the ministry would supervise Gors’s operations and management and issue opinions. It could also assign tasks to the manager in accordance with procedures set out in legislation and within the available budget.
The ministry would have to approve Gors’s medium term strategy, annual operating plan, financial and nonfinancial targets, and budget proposal. It would also have the right to replace a board member if that person failed to meet the organisation’s operating targets.
An earlier attempt to agree on a similar model failed in the Saeima at the beginning of the summer. That proposal envisaged a foundation with representatives from ministries, Rēzekne municipality and the cultural sector. Parliament rejected it because lawmakers considered it interference in the municipality’s work.
The issue of Gors’s management arose after an audit commissioned by Rēzekne City Council. The municipality began considering reducing its funding for the concert hall and changing its management structure. The audit was commissioned to examine revenue accounting and assess the profitability of events.
On December 30, 2025, Gors manager Diāna Zirniņa was suspended following an extraordinary meeting of the concert hall’s working group. She had led the concert hall since it opened in 2013. Ilona Rupaine, a composer, teacher and musicologist who had headed Gors’s artistic and events department since its opening, was appointed as the new manager.
Gors’s working group also assessed possible reorganisation scenarios, including transferring the concert hall to the private sector.