Latvia

Latvia’s new Parliament discarded a draft Civil Union law, which had been undertaken by the previous Saeima in order to comply with a ruling of the Constitutional Court. The draft law provides legal protections to families, including same-sex couples. The momentum behind the initiative was sustained by a petition signed by more than 23,000 citizens. The leader of the Progressive Party has pledged to continue working towards the adoption of the law. It has been possible for same-sex couples to register a civil union with the Administrative Court since May 2022. The previous Saeima had failed to approve the law by the June deadline set by the Constitutional Court, and the October elections have only seen the vote share of conservative parties who tout traditional family values, such as the National Alliance and Latvia First, grow. The fact that this issue has been dropped from the agenda makes the possibility of codifying legal protections for same-sex couples, such as property, tax and inheritance, more remote.

Gender Equality Social Group Equality LGBTQIA+ Rights

The centre-right New Unity (JV) party of the incumbent Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš won 19 per cent of the vote in Latvia’s parliamentary elections on 1 October. Seven parties passed the five per cent threshold required to be represented in Parliament. The populist Stability party has replaced Harmony Social Democracy (SSD) as the largest Russophone party in Parliament. SSD had formerly been Latvia’s biggest opposition party but has lost support since publicly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine. Overall voter turnout rose to 59 per cent - an increase of five percentage points compared to the 2018 elections. However, there was low turnout among the Latvian diaspora (only 16 per cent), partly as a result of recent amendments to election laws introducing additional requirements for opening election sites. For example, as a result of the new requirements, only nine sites were opened across the United Kingdom, where more than 130,000 Latvian citizens are registered to vote, compared to 19 during the 2018 elections. 

Elections Krišjānis Kariņš

Latvia extended the State of Emergency on the border with Belarus for the fourth time since it first came into effect one year ago with the announced intention of deterring illegal border crossings. The State of Emergency was criticized by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights for obstructing transparency and accountability for measures affecting migrants and refugees taken at the border and restricting the work of human rights organizations.

State of Emergency Migration Refugees CoE