OREANDA-NEWS. The leader of the Latvian party "Consent" Nil Ushakov announced his retirement from the post of mayor of the capital of the republic. He told about this on his Instagram page, where he posted “the last selfie in the mayor of Riga’s chair”. In his farewell post, Ushakov thanked his supporters for supporting his party and promised to continue to defend its values and ideals at the European level. In addition, he said that he would continue in court the struggle for the recognition of the illegality of his dismissal from the post of mayor. 

Ushakov also assured his supporters that the new mayor of Riga will continue the work begun by him and his party. In the Latvian capital, the mayor is appointed from among the deputies of the city duma by a decision of the majority of legislators. The last elections to the Riga City Council were held in 2017, according to their results, the Consent party received 21 mandates out of 60 and formed a coalition with the Honor to Serve Riga party (11 mandates), headed by the associate of Ushakov Andris Ameriks. At the moment, the duties of the mayor of Riga are performed by the Deputy Ushakov Oleg Burov.

Nil Ushakov and Andris Ameriks became deputies of the European Parliament and received immunity following the results of the elections held on May 26. Both politicians went to the polls according to the lists of the “Consent” party.

Ushakov ceased to perform the duties of the mayor of Riga since April 5, after the Minister for Regional Development of Latvia, Juris Putse, decided to deprive him of his authority for “failure to fulfill the obligations established by law and violation of regulatory acts”. Ushakov is suspected of corruption offenses related to the activities of the municipal enterprise "Rīgas satiksme" ("Riga Post", responsible for transport), where he is a shareholder.