Union of Greens and Farmers

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Union of Greens and Farmers
Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība
AbbreviationZZS
LeaderAivars Lembergs
ChairmanArmands Krauze [lv]
Founded25 July 2002; 21 years ago (2002-07-25)
HeadquartersLielirbes iela 17a-30, Riga
Membership (2017)2,254[1][2]
IdeologyAgrarianism
Political positionCentre to centre-right
Members
Colours
  •   Green
  •   Yellow
Saeima
16 / 100
European Parliament
0 / 8
Mayors
11 / 43
Website
zzs.lv

The Union of Greens and Farmers (

.

It is positioned in the

While the alliance's formal leader is Edgars Tavars, its leading figure and chief financial supporter is the oligarch Aivars Lembergs.[14] The ZZS has had the world's first prime minister, Indulis Emsis (Prime Minister of Latvia in 2004), and first head of state, Raimonds Vējonis (President of Latvia 2015–19), to be affiliated with a green party.[15]

History

The alliance was established to contest the 2002 parliamentary election by the Latvian Green Party (LZP) and Latvian Farmers' Union (LZS).[15] It ran on an ideologically amorphous agenda and won 12 out of 100 seats in the parliament. In March 2004, Indulis Emsis from the LZP became the Prime Minister of Latvia until December of that year.[15]

On a European level, the LZP cooperated with the European Green Party while the LZS has no formal affiliation. Before the 2004 European Parliament election, ZZS announced that if its representative was elected, he or she would join one of two political groups depending on which party they belonged to.

The alliance continued for the 2006 parliamentary election, and won 18 seats. It became part of the governing coalition, and LZP chairman Indulis Emsis, who served as Prime Minister briefly in 2004, became Speaker of the Saeima.

Aivars Lembergs was the candidate of the Union of Greens and Farmers for the position of Prime Minister in 2006, before being charged with corruption, fraud, bribery, money laundering and abuse of elected office on 20 July 2006. On 14 March 2007, Lembergs was detained by the Latvian authorities in relation to a criminal investigation.

At the

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group.[17]

In the 2015 presidential election, the alliance's then-leader Raimonds Vējonis became President of Latvia and subsequently resigned his leadership of the alliance. In January 2016, after the resignation of Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, Liepāja Party member Māris Kučinskis became the head of government. After the 2018 Latvian parliamentary election, ZZS lost ten seats and ultimately in 2019 became a part of the opposition to the Kariņš cabinet. It stayed in opposition until 2023, when it became part of Evika Siliņa cabinet.

Split, change of members

In early 2022, the alliance started to break apart, with the Green Party announcing that it sees no way of further cooperation with For Latvia and Ventspils, still led by oligarch Aivars Lembergs, and ultimately on 11 June 2022 it voted to leave the alliance, later joined by the Liepāja Party. In July, the Greens and the Liepāja Party joined the Latvian Association of Regions and a political NGO led by construction contractor Uldis Pīlēns in forming the United List alliance.[18]

The departing parties were replaced with the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (LSDSP), a rival of the 1920s and 1930s, who joined ZZS on June 1 and allowed it to retain its name.[19] The alliance once again announced Lembergs as their prime ministerial candidate.[20]

Ideology

The Union of Greens and Farmers is based on similar sentimental feelings shared by the voters of the two groups. Latvians are supportive of traditional small farms and perceive them as more environmentally friendly than large-scale farming: Nature is threatened by development, while small farms are threatened by large industrial-scale farms. For example, after the restoration of independence, Latvia broke down Soviet-era collective farms and returned land to its original owners (or their descendants).[21] This perception has resulted in an alliance between green and farmer's parties, which is rare in other countries.

The alliance is

adoption of the euro by Latvia. The party opposes granting non-citizens Latvian citizenship or voting rights in local elections.[22]

On social issues, the party has taken a traditionally conservative approach, opposing same-sex marriage and instead favouring civil unions for same-sex couples.[23] It supports abortion rights for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and has voted to ratify the Istanbul Convention for preventing violence against women, despite having initially expressed skepticism over the convention’s use of the term “gender” and potential redefinition of marriage outside of that of a union of a man and a woman.[24]

Members

Name Ideology Position Leader Saeima MEPs
Latvian Farmers' Union
Latvijas Zemnieku savienība
Agrarianism
Conservatism
Centre Armands Krauze
11 / 100
0 / 8
For Latvia and Ventspils[nb 1]
Latvijai un Ventspilij
Regionalism Centre Aivars Lembergs
2 / 100
0 / 8
Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party
Latvijas Sociāldemokrātiskā Strādnieku Partija
Social democracy
Centre-left
Jānis Dinevičs
2 / 100
0 / 8
Independents
1 / 100
0 / 8

Former Members

Name Ideology Position Leader Time
Latvian Green Party
Latvijas Zaļā partija
Green politics
Social conservatism
Centre to centre-right Edgars Tavars 2002–2022
Liepāja Party[nb 2]
Liepājas Partija
Localism Centre-right Uldis Sesks 2004–2022

Election results

Legislative elections

Election Leader Performance Rank Government
Votes % ± pp Seats +/–
2002 Ingrīda Ūdre 93,759 9.47 New
12 / 100
New 5th Coalition
2006 Aivars Lembergs 151,595 16.81 Increase 7.34
18 / 100
Increase 6 Increase 2nd Coalition
2010 190,025 20.11 Increase 3.30
22 / 100
Increase 4 Decrease 3rd Coalition
2011 Raimonds Vējonis 111,957 12.33 Decrease 7.78
13 / 100
Decrease 9 Decrease 5th Opposition
2014 178,210 19.66 Increase 7.33
21 / 100
Increase 8 Increase 3rd Coalition
2018 Māris Kučinskis 83,675 9.97 Decrease 9.69
11 / 100
Decrease 10 Decrease 6th Opposition
2022 Aivars Lembergs 113,676 12.58 Increase 2.61
16 / 100
Increase 5 Increase 2nd Opposition (2022-2023)
Coalition (2023-)

European Parliament

Election Leader Votes % Seats +/–
2004 Baiba Rivža 24,467 4.28 (#8)
0 / 8
2009 29,463 3.79 (#10)
0 / 8
Steady
2014 Andris Bērziņš 36,637 8.32 (#4)
1 / 8
Increase 1
2019 Dana Reizniece-Ozola 25,252 5.37 (#6)
0 / 8
Decrease 1

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Cooperation agreement with the alliance, not formal member
  2. ^ Cooperation agreement with the alliance, not formal member

References

  1. ^ "What's up with Latvia's feeble civic engagement?". LSM.lv. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Latvijā partijās daudzkārt mazāk biedru nekā Lietuvā un Igaunijā. Kāpēc tā?" (in Latvian). LSM.lv. 2 January 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  3. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Latvia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  4. ^ "Māris Kučinskis nominated as Latvian prime minister". POLITICO. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  5. ^ "Ethnic Russians have big influence in Latvian election". Associated Press. 6 October 2018.
  6. .
  7. ^ .
  8. .
  9. ^ .
  10. ^ "Latvia poised to gain its first female prime minister". POLITICO. 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  11. .
  12. .
  13. .
  14. .
  15. ^ .
  16. ^ "Farage's EFDD group collapses". 16 October 2014.
  17. ^ "Liberals and Democrats adopt Latvia's stray MEP". eng.lsm.lv.
  18. ^ "Latvian Green Party leaves Union of Greens and Parties". Baltic News Network - News from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  19. ^ "Saeimas vēlēšanās Zemnieku savienības un LSDSP kopīgais premjera amata kandidāts būs Viktors Valainis". www.lsm.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved 2022-08-14.
  20. ^ "Union of Greens and Farmers picks Aivars Lembergs as PM candidate". Baltic News Network - News from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-08-14.
  21. ^ Hiltzik, Michael (16 September 1991). "Reclaiming the Past in the Baltics : Property owners are getting back what the Soviets took away decades ago. That makes tenants and farmers nervous and fearful". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  22. .
  23. ^ "Saeima pieņem neprecēto pāru partnerības regulējumu; opozīcija mēģinās sarīkot referendumu". Los Angeles Times. 9 November 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  24. ^ "ZZS: Sadarbība". ZZS. 3 December 2023.

External links