Latvia's hottest politician, though not yet officially in politics, popped out for lunch Nov. 6 to host a press conference in which he spoke of his future party's health care program.

Latvian central bank head Einars Repse has already made several political proclamations, and announced recently that if he can raise enough money to leave his job he will form a new right-wing party by the name of New Time. His health program turned out to be populistic and nothing new. More people should get free medicine, he said. There should be no queues for surgery, health insurance should be patched up, and people should take on more responsibility for their own health. Repse's statements over the last two months have been widely criticized. Even before he said he wanted exactly 500,000 lats ($805,000) for leaving his well-paid job to go into politics and another 900,000 lats to cover expenses for the party, the prosecutor general's office began to look into whether it was legal to be collecting money for a political party while still boss of the central bank. It found that they were within the boundaries of Latvian law as long as Repse clearly separated his roles as an individual and as president of Latvia's most important bank.