Ruling party calls for early elections

RIGA - The ruling People's Party has called for early elections to take place in the country sometime this spring.

The party released a statement on Friday saying that the current developments in Latvia could lead toa deep political crisis and economic collapse. Therefore, the statement said, the parliamentshould immediately start working on the legal framework for earlyparliament elections.

The People's Party said that the riots that took place outside the parliament buildingearlier this week was an act of vandalism that must be strongly denouncedand would not be acceptable in any European country.

"But we have not seen the Latvian president, the community and the opinionmakers unanimously denouncing those events at the parliament. Moreover, animpression is created that many political forces are interested in furtherescalation of violence and silently perceive this a support to theirpolicies," the People's Party said in the statement.

"All the proposals made so far about solving the situation, for example,by amending the Constitution, reorganizing the government or the entirecoalition, organizing new referendums and making minor adjustments to theelection law are inadequate in the given situation," said the rulingparty.