Zatlers, who was Latvia's seventh president from 2007-2011 before going on to found his own political party (which no longer exists), ironized that the current "political paradox" in Latvia is that those who do the least sit the longest in the seats of Saeima deputies, because those who start doing something are not re-elected afterwards.
Zatlers said that recently there is a tendency to avoid decisions in politics rather than make tough choices and that the government had been "insufficiently clear" in preparing the ground for its tax plans.
"Finding out about the tax [plans], even I myself was worried: what is this, what is happening here? Because in principle this affects every person, and there's a big question whether it affects them positively," Zatlers said.
The current political landscape is one of "evasiveness" he said.
"I say - decide which fires to put out and which to let burn, otherwise you won't do anything during your term," Zatlers said.
He also criticized the government's ability to reform the healthcare sector, stating that when governments and ministers change, everyone starts planning something anew, but for example, a plan for better treatment of oncology patients was already developed 15 years ago, but the newly appointed ministers "do not look at what they already have on the shelves". Zatlers was himself a distinguished surgeon before entering the political world.
