The Prosecutor General's Office's decision to open criminal proceedings1 is a normal and necessary step to ensure that all events and facts are examined objectively. As is known, Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze called on the prosecution service2 in November last year to assess the decisions in question. The prosecution service is acting professionally, which will hopefully help put an end to the unfounded political attacks and the public frenzy surrounding the ministry and the sector.
Support for the timber industry was an economically and politically justified decision in a time of crisis, taken to preserve jobs and the economy in Latvia's regions — which, incidentally, are of no concern whatsoever to the sector's opponents, and never have been. In crisis situations it is the state's duty to help sectors overcome that crisis. This is standard practice in European countries: Sweden, for example, helped its timber industry at the end of 2025 when it ran into modest profitability difficulties.
It should be recalled that: “...the state budget law provided that the manager of the state forests (Latvijas valsts mezi, LVM) would pay no less than 58.574 million euros into the state budget in dividends for 2024; in fact the company paid slightly more than 111 million euros, that is, 52.9 million euros more than initially forecast. Instead of LVM's planned profit of 90 million euros, it earned 150 million euros.3”
“Whereas softwood processors employed 2,225 people in 2022, by the end of 2023 there were only 2,070 left; accordingly, the wage fund was also cut from slightly more than 61.07 million euros in 2022 to 59.99 million euros in 2023, and the labour taxes paid by the companies (personal income tax + mandatory state social insurance contributions) fell correspondingly from 26.965 million euros in 2022 to 25.62 million euros in 2023. The companies' capitalisation value also fell — by 40% — which hit hard those companies with debt obligations running into millions of euros. There was a single reason for all of this: the very high prices of softwood sawlogs in Latvia compared with those in competitor countries.3”
Knowing and being well aware that Saeima elections are approaching, it must be recalled that unfounded politicisation of situations and issues harms both the sector and the country as a whole. The institutions must be allowed to work calmly and responsibly, without political pressure or instructions.