FIFTY-FOUR people were killed and dozens injured when a supermarket roof in Latvia’s capital Riga collapsed. The tragedy was the worst in the Baltic country’s peacetime history. Many felt it exemplified the corruption and weakness in parts of the state administration that have plagued Latvia since it regained independence in 1991. Was the building constructed in defiance of building codes? Or was a winter garden on the roof poorly drained, so that sodden earth brought concrete beams crashing down on crowds of shoppers?The answers should probably come from the Riga municipality, the public body directly responsible. But the government’s lacklustre response also epitomised its main failing: a detached and unsympathetic approach to Latvians’ human and daily concerns. That seems to be why the prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, suddenly tendered his resignation on November 27th after an unscheduled meeting with Andris Berzins, the president.Mr Dombrovskis’s coalition governments have piloted the country through economic storms following a banking collapse in 2008. Despite a more than 20% peak-to-trough fall in GDP, he won re-election in 2010. Now the economy is the fastest-growing in Europe and Latvia will adopt the euro on January 1st. But the cost has been high. Hundreds of thousands have emigrated. Those who remain yearn for better leadership. They will probably get the same…