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

Table of Contents

1. Introduction page

2. Historical Review page

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 page

5. Conclusion page

Bibliography page

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

As I will explain in the third chapter, some of today´s parties like the Social-Democrats or the Peasant´s Union consider themselves as succesors of organizations which already existed during the "Interwar-Period" between World War I and World War II, when Latvia gained independence and developed a parliamentary democracy. In general, many Latvians look back in a positive mood at their first republic and believe the Soviet and German occupation to be just an interruption in the course of a sovereign Latvia.^[1] The fact that the enumeration of parliamentary terms continues with the fifth Saeima in 1993 is just another sign for the significance of the first republic for today´s Latvia.

After the peace treaty of Brest-Litowsk was enacted by the belligerent powers in 1918, the Latvian People´s Council declared independence and created the Constitutional Assembly which ratified the Satversme and other important laws like one on agrarian reform.^[2] Similar to the constitutional bill of Weimar, the first Latvian constitution formed a parliament without any entrance-threshold for political parties and added plebiscitarian elements to the parliamentary process. Although during radical reforms in the agrarian sector many ethnic German farmers lost their property to Latvian peasants the minority-laws were very progressive in contrast to other European countries because the different ethnic groups like Russians, Germans, Poles and Jews could remain in their traditional communities and, above all, run their own schools and churches. There were only few parties with relations to a specific ethnic group while the most influential political organization was the Farmer´s Union, which delivered the prime minister twelve times between 1920 and 1934. Except the social democrats who established their party as early as 1904 no other leftist party had significant influence because during the Latvian liberation wars any socialist or communist activity was illegal. Although during some parliamentary terms there were as many as 27 factions represented in the Saeima the political landscape was dominated by the conservative Farmer´s Union, the Social-Democrats and the national-liberal Democratic Center Party, which received many votes among middle-class citizens in cities. But the everchanging coalition-governments became usual and soon confidence in democracy disappeared, especially among conservative politicians in Latvia.^[3] Without discussing opportunities of a possible parliamentary reform the Farmer´s Union´s Ulmanis-Administration proposed a bill which should strengthen the position of the president. The Social Democratic Party voted against the law offering then-prime minister Karlis Ulmanis a reason to declare a state of emergency. In dissolving the fourth Saeima and prohibiting political parties he pretended to protect Latvia against the threat of a communist revolution. Ulmanis legitimated his dictatorial leadership with the traditional patriarchal style within a Latvian farmer´s family and offered to the peasants privileges which secured their support for him. The minorities living in Latvia lost their protective rights but on the other hand, during the Ulmanis Period the Latvian economy experienced some consolidation.^[4]

As influential as the first republic was concerning the political attitudes of today´s Latvians the more important is taking into account the Soviet and German occupation. Except during the presence of the German Wehrmacht between 1941 and 1944 the primary goal of the Kremlin was to oppress Latvian national identity. The capital Riga became a major Red Army base while Latvian society and especially the communist party and other official organizations experienced strong immigration by ethnic Russians which was backed by Moscow. After the last Latvian rebels surrendered to the Red Army in the late Fifties, there was no significant national opposition movement in Latvia for the following 30 years. Since the Sovjet Union watched closely for any signs of public nationalism, many Latvians took care of their traditions behind closed doors. One of the few means for Latvians to show their national correlation was attending the traditional folk song festivities which were an important starting-point for the opposition organizations of the 1980s.^[5]

3. The Origin of Latvia`s political parties

3.1 From Perestroika to Independence

A common cause for the changes in the communist countries which took place during the last decade was the politics of Mikhail Gorbachev who promoted perestroika and glasnost in the late Soviet Union.^[6] A very little known fact is that shortly before the Latvian opposition movements began to organize themselves, the international Chautauqua conference was held in the seaside-resort Jurmala near Riga. The Chautauqua talks consisted of regular meetings between U.S. and U.S.S.R. delegations to discuss political problems of relevance for both sides, but in September of 1986, just six months after Gorbachev was chosen as General Secretary in Moscow, the unsolved and opressed question of Latvian nationality became a hot topic in the conference. Besides that more than 200 exiles from the Baltics came to Jurmala, United States Ambassador J. Matlock reminded the participants that the U. S. did not recognize the illegal incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union.^[7] Since this was the first time many Latvians heard about this policy from an American official in Latvian language, the Jurmala conference can be viewed as the second external factor for the formation of the oposition groups besides Gorbachev`s reform initiatives.

[...]

^[1] Matthes, C. (1996), p.17

^[2] http://www.saeima.lanet.lv/LapasEnglish/7thSaeima_Visa.htm (22.12.1999)

^[3] Matthes, C. (1996), p.18+19

^[4] Matthes, C. (1996), p.20

^[5] Matthes, C. (1996), p.21+22

^[6] Mc Lean, I. (ed.) (1996), p.204

^[7] Smith, I.& Grunts, M.V. (1993), p.xliii