Time enough

SEEN one way, the last thing Latvia needs is a political crisis. The small Baltic country has clawed its way back from a huge economic bust and bank crisis that followed a breakneck boom. It regained competitiveness through wage cuts and fiscal restraint, rather than by devaluation. After a 20%-plus fall in GDP, growth is flickering upwards. Unemployment is still 16%, but that is down from a peak of 20%. The IMF, which led a bail-out in 2008, has just lent more money—which may not be needed. Latvia has a decent prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, and a functioning if precarious coalition government.

But a political convulsion has now upended this picture. The president, Valdis Zatlers, once seen as ponderous and lacklustre, has unleashed a frontal assault on Latvia's politically influential tycoons. This followed a vote in which parliamentary deputies overruled the country's anti-corruption agency, KNAB, which wanted to search the home of a tycoon and party leader, Ainars Slesers, as part of a probe into abuse of office, bribery and other sleaze. (Mr Slesers denies all wrongdoing.) Mr Zatlers used one of his few powers to call a referendum on the dissolution of the Saeima, as the parliament is known.

KNAB's zeal is popular among Latvians, who cherish their often impressive state institutions, just as they mostly despise politicians. Mr Zatlers may win his referendum. But he has not helped his chances of re-election in an upcoming vote by the existing Saeima. Nor is there any guarantee that a new legislature, when elected, will be any cleaner.

Outsiders worry about Latvia's manifold weaknesses, ranging from leaky border controls to feeble defence spending, as well as the domination of the media by shadowy commercial interests. The latest rumpus will do little for confidence in the short term. But if it leads to real change in Latvia's murky politics, Mr Zatlers will be vindicated.