The politics of Latvia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President holds a primarily ceremonial role as Head of State. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, the Saeima. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Latvia a "flawed democracy" in 2022.
Riga City Council is the government of the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Its meeting place is in the Riga Town Hall at the Town Hall Square (Rātslaukums) in the very heart of Riga.
In Latvia, Russians have been the largest ethnic minority in the country for the last two centuries. The number of Russians in Latvia more than quadrupled during the Soviet occupation of Latvia when the size of the community grew from 8.8% of the total population in 1935 (206,499) to 34.0% in 1989 (905,515). It started to decrease in size again after Latvia regained independence in 1991 falling to 24.2% at the beginning of 2022.
Harmony Centre was a social-democratic political alliance in Latvia. It originally consisted of five political parties: the National Harmony Party, the Socialist Party of Latvia, New Centre, the Daugavpils City Party, and the Social Democratic Party. Through a series of mergers they were eventually reduced to two: Social Democratic Party "Harmony" and the Socialist Party.
Rīgas Satiksme is a municipally-owned public transportation and infrastructure company serving Riga, Latvia and the surrounding areas. It was founded on 20 February 2003 as an umbrella organisation for the respective operators of trams, buses and trolleybuses in the city of Riga. Two years later, the separate operators of the different modes of public transport were merged and re-branded to its current name.
Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way was a political party in Latvia created from the merger of the Christian-democratic Latvia's First Party (LPP), the liberal Latvian Way (LC) and the regionalist We for our District and Vidzeme Union in 2007. These parties had already formed an electoral coalition in 2006. The unified party was led by Ainārs Šlesers, the former LPP chairman. It was dissolved in December 2011.
Alfrēds Rubiks, is a Latvian communist politician and a former leader of the Communist Party of Latvia. He was a Member of the European Parliament for Latvia from 2009 until 2014. In the European Parliament he was a member of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group.
Nils Ušakovs is a Latvian Russian politician, former mayor of Riga and former journalist. He has been the board chairman of the left-wing party alliance Harmony Centre (2005–2014) and afterwards board chairman of the Social Democratic Party "Harmony" (2014–2019). In 2009 Ušakovs was elected the Mayor of Riga, becoming the first Riga Mayor of Russian descent since Latvia's restoration of sovereignty in 1991, a position he continuously held until his dismissal in 2019.
Ainārs Šlesers is a Latvian business oligarch and politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia, as well as Deputy Mayor of Riga. Currently he is a member of the Latvian Parliament with his political party, Latvia First, holding 9 seats in the parliament.
Unity is a liberal-conservative political party in Latvia. It is a member of the New Unity alliance and is positioned on the centre-right on the political spectrum. Since 2017, its chairman of the Main Board has been the former Minister for Economics of Latvia, Arvils Ašeradens, who succeeded former European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
The Social Democratic Party "Harmony", also commonly referred to as Harmony (Saskaņa), is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. It was the largest political party in the Saeima, representing the Russian minority of Latvia, before losing all of its parliamentary seats in the 2022 Latvian parliamentary election. It is currently led by Jānis Urbanovičs.
For a Good Latvia was a Latvian right-wing party alliance founded on 22 April 2010 by the People's Party, Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way, the businessmen's movement For a Good Latvia and some smaller parties. The initial name (AŠ)² referred to the initials of the party leaders of the People's Party and LPP/LC. Both major parties participating had been doing badly in the polls. The alliance was headed by former Latvian president Guntis Ulmanis.
Andris Ameriks is a Latvian politician and economist who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since the 2019 elections. He is a former deputy mayor of Riga.
A constitutional referendum on the "Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia" was held on 18 February 2012. Proposed amendments included Articles 4, 18, 21, 101 and 104 of the Constitution of Latvia by adding the condition about Russian as the second official language, as well as prescribing two working languages — Latvian and Russian — for self-government institutions. The referendum's question was "Do you support the adoption of the Draft Law "Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia" that provides for the Russian language the status of the second official language?"
Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis is a Latvian Russian politician and economist, who has previously served as the Minister for Education and Science and as Minister of Economics of Latvia.
Andrejs Mamikins is a Latvian Russian politician, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament.
Honor to serve Riga! is a municipal political party located in Riga, Latvia. It was created on 17 March 2012 and is led by Andris Ameriks, the former deputy mayor of Riga.
The Progressives is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. The party was founded on 25 February 2017. Since 4 September 2021 its leaders have been Antoņina Ņenaševa and Atis Švinka. The Progressives have 11 seats on Riga City Council and 10 seats in the Saeima but do not hold any seats in the European Parliament.
Oļegs Burovs is a Latvian politician who was the mayor of Riga from August 2019 to February 2020. He is a member of the Honor to serve Riga party and a member of the Riga City Council.
The 2020 Riga City Council election was held from 26 to 29 August 2020 to elect the 60 members of Riga City Council. The election was initially scheduled for 25 April 2020, and then rescheduled three times – once due to a court ruling and twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia, to 2 May, 6 June, and 29 August. The council will be elected for nearly five years instead of the standard four, and the next election is scheduled to take place in 2025, at the same time as all other municipal elections in Latvia.
