Free University of Berlin

Origin and formation of Latvia`s political parties
- The period of transition and the beginning
of consolidation in Latvia`s political landscape

by

 Alexander Pilic

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Historical Review

3. The Origin of Latvia´s Parties
3.1 From Perestroika to Independence
3.2 The period of party-building

4. Latvia`s parties on their way to more stability

5. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

Since Latvia became independent in 1991 the people of the small Baltic republic had the opportunity to experience democracy , from which it was excluded for many years. After a short period of being a liberal democracy in the 1920´s since 1934 Latvia was ruled by totalitarian regimes, beginning with the dictatorship of Ulmanis and the following German occupation of the country to almost fifty years of Soviet rule which ended officially on September 6th, 1991 when the Soviet Union recognized all three Baltic states to be independent.

In the aftermath, like many other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Latvia found itself in a process of transition which lasts for one decade now. Above all, people are expieriencing economic changes in their daily lifes: In contrast to communist times they may lose their job or find a new one on their own, they open businesses and are able to choose from a wider variety of goods if they earn enough money. But when Latvians held their first peaceful mass rallies in 1988 they demanded political freedom from their Soviet oppressors. They reminded Moscow of the criminal Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Stalinist mass deportations which took place in the 1940s. Finally, the marches in Riga and other cities of the country were a sign for the wish of the people to accomplish freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to vote. When the people of Latvia were able to participate in the first partly free elections in 1989 they chose almost exclusively candidates of their main opposition movement Popular Front (LTF) to represent Latvia´s interests within Moscow´s Congress of the People´s Deputies. Just one year later, the last elections under Soviet rule took place on the national level in Latvia. Again, the Popular Front finished first and governed Latvia on it´s way towards independence. As soon as the LTF was freed from the big pressure under which it had fought for democracy against the powerful Kremlin it became obvious that the Popular Front consisted of very different political groups ranging from former communist party members to Latvian nationalists. The rising awareness of this fact among LTF-activists marked the beginning formation of a multi-party system in Latvia.

However, the Popular Front was not the only political movement during the period of Latvia´s national rebirth in the early 1990s. Besides former members of the Soviet elites, which did not participate in the LTF, there also existed a conservative-nationalist wing of the opposition which called itself Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK). These three groups made up the main sources which fed and still feed Latvian parties with personalities and political beliefs up to this present day. Since the first party foundations ten years ago, Latvia saw many of them being born but almost the same number of parties disappearing again.

Some of them were very popular during one election, but in the next one they could not collect enough votes to get into parliament. Some parties collapsed after a short period of time, others split into new movements or merged with other parties. The party-system´s instability seems to have effects on the Latvian political landscape as a whole. Although the Republic of Latvia is far from being chaotic or unreliable no coalition-government lasted for the whole parliamentary term and in each of the three elections during the nineties more than one half of the participating parties took part for the first time. On the other hand, especially during the last two years some small parties merged into larger ones or at least formed joined factions in parliament and lists in the elections, like the Social-Democrats, the conservative Fatherland and Freedom Union or the socialist Harmony for Latvia party. This development could be considered as a step towards larger and more significant parties which would lead to more stability within Latvia´s political landscape.

In order to find out whether there is a tendency for consolidation among political parties I will concentrate this essay in first place on their process of formation since the beginning of Latvia´s democratization in the late eighties. Furthermore, I will link the parties´ genesis with their roles in parliament and administration to explain their significance for Latvian politics. In my conclusion I will summarize the collected data in order to give an answer to the examined issue.

2. Historical Review

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