Socialist Party of Latvia

Socialist Party of Latvia Latvijas Sociālistiskā partija Социалистическая партия Латвии
Abbreviation	LSP (Latvian) СПЛ (Russian)
Leader
Founder	Filips Stroganovs
Founded	15 January 1994; 27 years ago (1994-01-15)[1]
Registered	14 March 1994; 27 years ago (1994-03-14)
Split from	Equal Rights
Preceded by	Communist Party of Latvia
Headquarters	Citadeles iela 2, Rīga
Newspaper	Socialist of Latvia
Ideology	Socialism Communism[2] Marxism Russian minority politics Soft Euroscepticism
Political position	Far-left[3]
National affiliation	ForHRUL (2002–2005), Harmony Centre (2005–2010), Social Democratic Party "Harmony" (2010–)
Regional affiliation	CPSU (2001)
European affiliation	INITIATIVE
International affiliation	IMCWP ICS (defunct)
European Parliament group	GUE/NGL
Colours	Red
Slogan	«Power to labor, not capital!» (Latvian: «Spēks darbam, nevis kapitāls!»), (Russian: «Власть труду, а не капиталу!»)
Saeima	1 / 100
European Parliament	0 / 8
Riga City Council	1 / 60
Website
socparty.lv
Politics of Latvia Political parties Elections

The Socialist Party of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Sociālistiskā partija, LSP, Russian: Социалистическая партия Латвии) was formed in 1994, as a successor party to the Communist Party of Latvia, which was banned in 1991. In essence, the party is communist;^[2] according to the "programme of the party", the LSP was founded as an organization upholding socialist ideas after the 1991 events that the party describes as a 'counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist coup'.^[4]

The current CEOs of the party are Bokišs Fridijs, Burlaks Ingars and Frolovs Vladimirs.^[5] Between 1999 and 2015, the position was held by Alfrēds Rubiks, once mayor of Riga and later, leader of the unionist movement and head of the Latvian Communist Party (CPSU platform). He was imprisoned for six years in 1991, on charges of participating in a coup d'état against the Latvian authorities in August 1991. He is not one of the party's members in the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) since he is not allowed to contest elections. However, his sons Artūrs Rubiks and Raimonds Rubiks are members of the Saeima representing the Socialist Party, elected on a joint list with Harmony.

The LSP is more popular among the Russian-speaking population of Latvia. It places a high priority on issues important to ethnic Russians, such as language and citizenship laws. The party also believes that Latvian citizenship should be granted to all citizens of the former USSR living in Latvia in 1990. This would entail a major change in the current law, which only gives automatic citizenship to descendants of people who were citizens of the Republic of Latvia before it was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, and requires the Soviet citizens who moved to Latvia between 1940 and 1990 (mainly Russians), to go through a naturalization process.

In the election held on 5 October 2002, the party was part of the For Human Rights in United Latvia (Latvian: Par cilvēka tiesībām vienotā Latvijā) coalition that won 19.0% of the popular vote and 25 out of 100 seats, 5 of those seats went to Socialist Party. The party was a member of this alliance of predominantly Russian-speaking parties from 1998 to 2003.

Today, the party's platform is centered on anti-corruption and promoting an independent Latvia that is free from European Union centralized power. In 2005, the LSP entered the Harmony Centre coalition, which won 17 seats in the 2006 election. Four of these 17 parliament members were representatives of the Socialist Party. In 2011, HC won 31 seats, with the Socialists receiving three seats (Artūrs Rubiks, Raimonds Rubiks and ).^[6] The party did not contest the 2014 parliamentary election, however, all three of its outgoing MPs were placed on the SDPS list and were members of the "12th Saeima" (2014–2018). The same strategy was used in the 2018 election,^[7] but only Artūrs Rubiks was elected.^[8]

Election results[]

Legislative elections[]

Election	Party leader	Performance					Rank	Government
		Votes	%	± pp	Seats	+/–
1995	Filips Stroganovs	53,325	5.61	New	5 / 100	New	9th	Opposition
1998		135,700	14.20 (ForHRUL-TSP[a])	8.59	4 / 100	1	4th	Opposition
2002	Alfrēds Rubiks	189,088	19.09 (ForHRUL[b])	4.89	5 / 100	1	2nd	Opposition
2006		130,887	14.52 (Harmony Centre[c])	4.57	4 / 100	1	4th	Opposition
2010		251,400	26.61 (Harmony Centre[d])	12.09	4 / 100	0	2nd	Opposition
2011		259,930	28.62 (Harmony Centre[e])	2.01	3 / 100	1	1st	Opposition
2014		209,887	23.15 (Saskaņa[f])	5.47	2 / 100	1	1st	Opposition
2018		167,117	19.92 (Saskaņa[g])	3.23	1 / 100	1	1st	Opposition

European Parliament elections[]

Election	Party leader	Performance					Rank	EP Group
		Votes	%	± pp	Seats	+/–
2004	Alfrēds Rubiks	9,480	1.66	New	0 / 8	New	12th	–
2009		154,894	19.93 (Harmony Centre[a])	18.27	1 / 8	1	2nd	GUE-NGL
2014		57,863	13.14 (Saskaņa[b])	6.79	0 / 8	1	3rd	–
2019		57,863	17.56 (Saskaņa[c])	4.42	0 / 8	1	2nd	–

References[]

External links[]

• Official website (in Latvian and Russian)