Atis Slakteris

Atis Slakteris (born 21 November 1956, Code parish) is a former Minister of Defence of Latvia, and Minister of Finance from December 2007 to March 2009.^[1]

Atis Slakteris
Minister of Finance
In office 20 December 2007 – 12 March 2009
Prime Minister	Ivars Godmanis
Preceded by	Oskars Spurdziņš
Succeeded by	Einars Repše
Minister of Defence
In office 8 April 2006 – 20 December 2007
Prime Minister	Aigars Kalvītis
Preceded by	Linda Mūrniece
Succeeded by	Vinets Veldre
In office 9 March 2004 – 2 December 2004
Prime Minister	Indulis Emsis
Preceded by	Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis
Succeeded by	Einars Repše
Minister of Agriculture
In office 5 May 2000 – 7 November 2002
Prime Minister	Andris Bērziņš
Preceded by	Aigars Kalvītis
Succeeded by	Mārtiņš Roze
Personal details
Born	(1956-11-21) 21 November 1956 (age 68) Code parish, Latvian SSR (Now Bauska Municipality)
Political party	People's party
Alma mater	Latvian University of Agriculture

Controversy

In late 2008, Slakteris gave an interview with Bloomberg 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 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.^[2][3] Slakteris admitted that his English language skills were not perfect, but said that the fragments with the phrases shown on TV3 had been taken out of context and believed the controversy was politically engaged.^[4]