Atis Slakteris (born 21 November 1956, Code parish) is a former Minister of Defence of Latvia, and

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

from December 2007 to March 2009.

Controversy

In late 2008, Slakteris gave an interview with

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

about Latvia's economic crisis, during which he answered a question regarding the causes of Latvia having come to borrow money from the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

as "nothing special". The phrases "nasing spešal" (mocking Slakteris' poor English and heavy accent during the interview), "we will be ''taupīgi'' (Latvian for "frugal")" and "my answer will be, but I will not say" became popular memes in Latvia. Slakteris admitted that his English language skills were not perfect, but said that the fragments with the phrases shown on

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

had been taken out of context and believed the controversy was politically engaged.

References

External links

Controversial interview on Bloomberg TV (download)
1956 births Living people People from Bauska Municipality Latvian Farmers' Union politicians People's Party (Latvia) politicians Ministers of Defence of Latvia Ministers of Finance of Latvia Deputies of the 7th Saeima Deputies of the 8th Saeima Deputies of the 9th Saeima Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies alumni {{Latvia-politician-stub