RIGA, Dec 6 (LETA) - Politicians should not decide which specific roads to invest in, as the choice should be left to professionals, Transport Minister Kaspars Briskens (Progressives) said on Friday in the Saeima during the debate on the 2025 state budget.

Members of the National Alliance (NA) had tabled several proposals to provide additional funding for the maintenance and renewal of national roads in next year's budget.

NA MP Arturs Butans said that road needs were not a luxury, but an acute necessity. MP Ilze Indriksone (NA) added that it is impossible to live in rural areas without a road.

Briskens criticized the former Minister of Transport, MP Janis Vitenbergs (NA), who, while serving as Minister, had paid "exaggerated" attention to the Tukums Region, from which Vitenbergs himself is from.

In his opinion, it is not right that "politicians come and say we will build this road and we will not build that road". This usually correlates with the municipalities governed by a particular party, the Transport Minister claimed.

Briskens agreed that investments in road maintenance and renewal are decreasing, as the budget phase has been stagnant or even reduced, and road repairs have been carried out using European funds, which also have decreased. However, the budget phase for road maintenance is higher this year, the Minister stressed.

As reported, the parliament continues for the third day to review the state budget project for 2025 in its final reading.