January 2, 2009

Political scientist Ivars Ijabs anticipates new nationalistic populism

Political scientist Ivars Ijabs anticipates that the next municipal elections will come with new wave of nationalist populism. Neatkariga

January 3, 2009

Changes in the Saeima Human Rights Commission

Previous Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Oskars Kastens will renew his status as MP, meanwhile Head of the Saeima Human Rights Commission Janis Smits will loose his position as MP and as Head of the Human Rights Commission. Janis Smits replaced Oskars Kastens as an MP while the latter occupied position of the Special Assignments Minister. Janis Smits has been famous for his intolerance towards gay and lesbian community. Latvijas Avize

January 5, 2009

Security police anticipates increase of radicalism

In an interview with Vesti Segonya, political scientist and publicist Sandris Tocs encouraged Latvian politicians to invite Russians to the government as soon as possible. He also stated that after the 17 years of independence people in Latvia have to leave stereotypes and prejudices, because such attitude only provokes tensions between two groups of the society.

Last year a group of young nationalists, a part of party All for Latvia, visited a lot of companies to test the Latvian language knowledge of their workers. After that in the website “Sargi valodu” (protect the language) this group published a black list of companies that workers don’t speak Latvian language well enough. They promised that visits will continue this year. Vesti Segonya

Investigation continues on case of illegal transportation of five citizens of Syria over Latvian border in September 2008. There are five people arrested, three of them Latvian citizens, one legal resident of Latvia and one citizen of Lithuania. Investigation will continue for up to three months. The Border Guards noted that this is not the first group of Syrian citizens. According to the Border Guards, Latvia is just a transit country for illegal migration destined to other EU countries. Vesti Segodnya

Tomorrow, the President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers will greet all Orthodox Christians and Old Believers in their coming Christmas. “We have to be united in this critical situation of our country!” says Valdis Zatlers. As reported, there are still discussions of including Orthodox Christmas in the official Latvian calendar. Latvia has more than 300’000 Orthodox Christians, reports Diena.

Security police anticipates that where will be increase of radicalism from right and left wing extremists. Increase is anticipated for the period of municipal and European Parliament elections in June, 2009. Diena

For further information:

Latvian Centre for Human Rights