Language drive delivers votes

RIGA - Between Nov. 1 and 30, a total of 183,046 voters signed a petition for staging a referendum on granting the status of state language to Russian, according to the Central Election Commission’s preliminary data, reports LETA. It is therefore likely that the necessary amount of signatures has been collected and the petition will be submitted for review in Saeima.

The final results of the signature drive will be presented after all the signatures are verified, in three to four weeks.
This is a controversial exercise, quite possibly an unnecessary and wasteful tactic by its promoters to divide Latvian society.

The proposal to give Russian state language status does not represent the point of view of the majority of the general public, but is an attempt by some politicians to increase their popularity, President Andris Berzins said on Nov. 29 during an interview on the Latvian Radio 1 program ‘Krustpunkta.’
He said that he believes that the Latvian language must be the foundation of unity in Latvia. Berzins urged political parties to work together to find a way to move forward.

The recent activities by Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs (Harmony Center), in signing and supporting the petition demanding state language status for Russian, has substantially undermined his position with Latvian voters, said journalist Lato Lapsa in an interview with SestDiena magazine.

“As a result, Usakovs has strengthened his position with Russian voters, but I would like to see even one Latvian voter who would be prepared to vote for him in the next elections, except [Janis] Urbanovics of course,” Lapsa added.
“The Latvian language is under no threat from the referendum because our constitutional forefathers were smart enough not to allow mere provocation to alter the Constitution,” Speaker of Saeima Solvita Aboltina said at a Unity party Riga division meeting on Dec. 3.

The referendum on a second state language will be held, but there is no need to fear this, by placing emphasis on changing the community’s state of mind, Aboltina stated. “No one doubts that our nation belongs among Western democratic nations. Still, what is occurring now in Riga is a distressing process. What divides Rigans is not ethnicity. The problems are being caused by Harmony Center and its shoddy leadership of the city,” said Aboltina.
In the cash-strapped capital, which may lose up to 10 million lats in a Latvijas Krajbanka deposit due to poor financial decisions by Riga City Council, a mandatory public referendum, conducted two months after parliament’s decision, will cost 1.7 million lats to the state budget.

The bill envisages amending the Constitution’s articles 4, 18, 21, 101 and 104. The referendum will be held regardless of whether Saeima approves or votes down the bill. A total of 771,893 signatures will be required to make Russian the country’s second official language.

A total of 154,379 signatures were needed to stage the referendum.