President Edgars Rinkēvičs said that the Transport Minister's communication has been a "complete failure".
On communication on issues related to airBaltic, the President of Latvia said: "Things that should have been explained immediately, on Friday afternoon, were explained yesterday. The public has perfectly legitimate questions, it is taxpayers' money that has been invested there."
He also stressed that it is the responsibility of the Minister for Transport, as the Minister responsible for the sector, not just to present decisions to the government but to explain them to the public.
"Explain clearly, explain in time, explain reasonably," Rinkēvičs said.
"Part of the minister's task is to be able to explain his decisions, so the questions on my agenda now will definitely be to assess his ability to deal with the situation of explaining airBaltic, explaining Rail Baltica," said Siliņa, adding that one of the decisions of a politician is to be able to explain decisions to the public in an understandable way, no matter how complicated they may be, while also being honest about what the problems are.
Briškens himself, meanwhile, said on Latvian Radio's "Pusdiena" program that he has no plans to resign from his post.
"Because that would be the simplest step. I think I have proved with my work that I am not afraid to communicate also on unpopular issues. I can see that a lot of things have been hidden behind the curtain, swept under the carpet. Now we are working very actively - myself, my team, our colleagues, including this government - to address all these long-standing challenges," said Briškens. Communication with the public "can always be better", he said.
