Saeima votes against Harmony Center’s “compromise amendments” on state language

RIGA - Today [Dec. 15] Saeima rejected Harmony Center’s “compromise amendments” to the Law on State Language, which envisaged the use of minority languages in communication with state and municipal institutions in those Latvian cities, towns and regions where a given ethnic minority makes up at least 20 percent of the population, reports LETA.

Harmony Center’s amendments to the Law on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities were also rejected. The amendments stipulated that each linguistic group could demand its language the status of a minority language, and the right to communicate with state and municipal institutions in its native language.

Harmony Center previously announced that the party’s vote on Constitutional amendments to make Russian the second state language will depend on the ruling coalition’s vote on the amendments that were voted down today in parliament.