| Latvia | |
|---|---|
| European Parliament constituency | |
 Location among the current constituencies | |
| Member state | Latvia |
| Created | 2004 |
| MEPs | 9 (2004–2009) 8 (2009–present) |
| Sources | |
Latvia is a European Parliament constituency for elections in the European Union covering the member state of Latvia. It is currently represented by eight Members of the European Parliament.
The 2004 European election was the sixth election to the European Parliament and the first for Latvia.
The 2009 European election was the seventh election to the European Parliament and the second for Latvia.
The 2014 European election was the eighth election to the European Parliament and the third for Latvia.
The 2019 European election was the ninth election to the European Parliament and the fourth for Latvia.
The 2024 European election will be the tenth election to the European Parliament and the fifth for Latvia.
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.
The Socialist Party of Latvia is a communist party in Latvia. It is positioned on the far-left on the political spectrum.
The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Latvia and the second oldest existing Latvian political party after the Latvian Farmers' Union. It is currently represented with two seats in the parliament of Latvia as a part of the Union of Greens and Farmers alliance after an absence of 20 years. The party tends to hold a less Russophilic view than fellow social-democratic party "Harmony".
Sandra Kalniete is a Latvian politician, author, diplomat and independence movement leader. She served as Foreign Minister of Latvia 2002–2004 and as European Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries in 2004. Since 2009, she has served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the European People's Party.
The Latvian Russian Union (LKS) is a political party in Latvia supported mainly by ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking minorities. The co-chairpersons of the Latvian Russian Union are Miroslav Mitrofanov and Tatjana Ždanoka.
The Union of Greens and Farmers is an agrarian political alliance in Latvia. It is made up of the Latvian Farmers' Union, Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party, and For Latvia and Ventspils.
Latvia elects on the national level a legislature. The Saeima has 100 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation with a 5% threshold. An unmodified Sainte-Laguë method is used to allocate seats. The parliamentary elections are held on the first Saturday of October. Locally, Latvia elects municipal councils, consisting of 7 to 60 members, depending on the size of the municipality, also by proportional representation for a four-year term.
Inese Vaidere is a Latvian politician who currently serves as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Roberts Zīle is a Latvian economist and politician and Vice President of the European Parliament for the National Alliance, a free market national conservative political party in Latvia. In the seventh term of the European Parliament, he works in the European Conservatives and Reformists group; he is a member of European Conservatives and Reformists Group Executive and a member of the group Bureau. He was formerly vice-president of the now defunct Union for a Europe of Nations group.
Tatjana Ždanoka or Tatyana Zhdanok is a Latvian politician and a Member of the European Parliament. She is co-chairwoman of the Latvian Russian Union and its predecessor parties since 1993.
Valdis Dombrovskis is a Latvian politician serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People since 2019 and European Commissioner for Trade since 2020. He previously served as European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union from 2016 to 2020 and Prime Minister of Latvia from 2009 to 2014.
Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš is a Latvian politician who served as the prime minister of Latvia from 2019 until 2023. A linguist and businessman by profession, he previously served as Latvia's minister of Economics and a Member of the European Parliament. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, to parents who had left Latvia during the Soviet occupation, he was active in the American Latvian community throughout his youth.
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.
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.
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.
An election of the delegation from Latvia to the European Parliament was held on 24 May 2014.
Movement For! is a liberal political party in Latvia. It is positioned in the centre on the political spectrum. The party was formed in August 2017. From 2018 to 2022 it was one of the members of the Development/For! alliance, before it de facto dissolved.
