New MPs choose aides as disputed compensation rules remain

Nearly half of Latvia’s 15th Saeima, the country’s parliament, are first-time lawmakers who are setting up their offices and choosing aides before committee and plenary work begins, LSM reported. They can also apply for transport and housing-cost compensation under rules that the previous parliament did not change despite criticism before the election.

Each lawmaker earns a basic salary of 4,330 euros a month before tax this year. Additional pay is available to those holding posts in the Saeima Presidium or leading a committee, subcommittee or parliamentary group. MPs receive no separate payments for attending parliament or committee meetings and are not paid bonuses.

Each MP may have up to two state-paid aides. If they choose two, the aides must share the funding allocated for one aide. Their duties include organising the MP’s work, preparing information, handling documents and communicating with constituents.

Lawmakers have workspaces in parliament, but are not each guaranteed a private office. Parliamentary groups have their own rooms, and their allocation has changed with the new Saeima. The parliament has six groups, one fewer than in the previous term.

Latvia First, whose number of MPs has nearly doubled since the previous term, has taken over the rooms used by the New Unity group. Latvia First leader Ainārs Šlesers joked that they would first need to “smoke out the spirit of New Unity.”