AN EXTRAORDINARY day today for an extraordinary session of the Latvian parliament. The whole thing had a slightly surreal flavour, from the chat I had with the pop singer Seal early in the morning, through a lengthy parliamentary debate about horses, to being asked for ad hoc IT advice by Sandra Kalniete and all to the sight of umbrellas (inspired by last year’s ‘umbrella revolution) bobbing up and down on one of the hottest days of the year.
For the full story you’ll need to read my write-ups elsewhere, but one personal highlight was the performance (the word is completely appropriate) of MP Juris Dobelis.
While most government supporters were keen to avoid running the gauntlet between Saeima and their offices across the street, Dobelis ouldn’t get enough of it. He revelled in provoking and sarcastically gesturing to the crowd for a good fifteen minutes while the security services looked on with frowns.
I happened to be standing right next to Dobelis and the degree to which he played to the gallery was truly remarkable. Noticing my camera, he struck a series of instant poses, yet all the time, even though his mouth was moving he didn’t say anything. He was actually miming. Having nothing to say, he was simply revelling in his ability to provoke and hamming it up good and proper. It was childish, rather insulting to the electorate but, I must admit, very funny as well.
But the crowd had the last laugh. After chanting “Come out! Come out!” to MPs for ages, once they’d had their fill of Dobelis’ clowning, they started chanting “Go back in!”
He eventually obliged, somewhat reluctantly.
