Early parliamentary elections were held in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

on 17 September 2011, following the country's first parliamentary dissolution referendum held on 23 July 2011. The previous parliamentary election was only held in October 2010. The elections resulted in Harmony Centre winning the most seats, up two to 31. This was the first time a pro-

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

party had won the most seats in a Latvian election.

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

, previously the largest party, fell to third, with 20 seats, behind the newly formed

Zatlers' Reform Party The Reform Party (), formerly known as Zatlers' Reform Party (, ZRP) until April 2012, was a centre-right political party in Latvia founded by former President Valdis Zatlers on 23 July 2011. It won 22 seats in the Saeima in the 2011 election. ...

, led by ex-

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Valdis Zatlers Valdis Zatlers (; born 22 March 1955) is a Latvian politician and former physician who served as the seventh president of Latvia from 2007 to 2011. He won the Latvian presidential election of 31 May 2007. He became President of Latvia on 8 July ...

, who had triggered the dissolution referendum in May. The right-wing

National Alliance National Alliance may refer to: Electoral alliances *National Alliance (Egypt) (2015) * National Alliance (Ireland) (2024 onwards) * National Alliance (Pakistan) (2002-2004) *Nation Alliance (Turkey) (2018-2023) Political parties and organizations ...

gained six seats to 14. Both the

Union of Greens and Farmers The Union of Greens and Farmers (, ZZS) 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. It is positioned in the centre on the ...

and

Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way (, LPP/LC) was a conservative-liberal 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 Distric ...

lost heavily, with the latter falling out of the Saeima altogether. Zatlers and incumbent

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Valdis Dombrovskis Valdis Dombrovskis (; born 5 August 1971) 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 serv ...

soon agreed to form a coalition. Needing nine further seats to give them a majority allowed three possible coalitions – with Harmony Centre, the National Alliance, or the Union of Greens and Farmers. The Greens and Farmers were quickly ruled out by Zatlers, who judged it to be an " oligarch's party". After initial talks with the National Alliance, the two briefly discussed a

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

with Harmony Centre. However, Zatlers and Unity returned to the National Alliance, and the three signed a coalition agreement on 11 October, with Dombrovskis as Prime Minister. The new government was confirmed by the Saeima on 25 October. A few days before the government formation, six MPs split from Zatlers' Reform Party; they still supported the new government, however.

Background

Prior to the elections, a number of changes in Latvia's party system occurred: * The

Social Democratic Party "Harmony" The Social Democratic Party "Harmony" (; , S),The party officially translates its name as ''Social Democratic Party "Concord"''. also commonly referred to as Harmony (''Saskaņa''), is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. It was the larg ...

absorbed

Daugavpils City Party The Daugavpils City Party (, DPP) was a regionalist political party located in Daugavpils, Latvia. It was formed in 2000 and was led by Daugavpils Mayor Vitālijs Azarevičs. In 2005 the party entered the electoral alliance Harmony Centre. H ...

. * The People's Party dissolved itself amid high debts and quickly sinking popularity. *

For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (, abbreviated to TB/LNNK) was a free-market, national conservative political party in Latvia. In 2011, it dissolved and merged into the National Alliance (Latvia), National Alliance. The party was founded from sm ...

and All For Latvia! turned their election alliance

into a joint party. * The

New Era Party The New Era Party (, JL) was a centre-right political party in Latvia. Founded in 2002, the party merged with Civic Union and Society for Other Politics to form Unity in 2011. New Era was a member of the European People's Party (EPP), and ...

, Civic Union and

Society for Other Politics The Society for Political Change (, SCP) was a social-liberal political party in Latvia founded on 6 September 2008. Its members include two former ministers, former foreign minister Artis Pabriks and former economics minister Aigars Štokenbergs ...

turned their election alliance

into a joint party. * Former president

(responsible for the referendum) founded

, which is enjoying great popularity in election polls. Zatlers' stated goal is to remove the influence of oligarchs on Latvian politics; with the dissolution of the People's Party, the parties Zatlers considers to represent oligarchs are the

and

Results

The Harmony Centre party, led by

Nils Ušakovs Nils Ušakovs (; born 8 June 1976) is a Latvian politician, former mayor of Riga and former journalist. He was the board chairman of the left-wing party alliance Harmony Centre (2005–2014) and afterwards board chairman of the Social Democrati ...

, finished with about 29% of the vote, followed by

with 21% and the

party with 18%. The

and the

were the only other parties to enter Parliament, with fourteen and twelve percent of the vote, respectively. Harmony Centre's victory was the first for a pro-Russian party since Latvia's independence; the party has ties to

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

Government formation

Despite winning the most seats, Harmony Centre, was unable to come to an agreement to form a coalition that would hold a majority in parliament immediately after the election. Usakovs entered talks with Zatlers Reform Party and Unity following the election with the aim of forming a coalition, though political analysts said that a potential stumbling block in the talks could be the opposition of other parties to Harmony Centre's connection to Latvia's Russian-speaking population. The most likely potential coalition was predicted to be Zatlers' Reform Party, Unity and National Alliance.

was believed to remain

, despite his party finishing behind the Reform Party. Zatlers stated on 1 October 2011 that he preferred a coalition with Dombrovskis as PM and including Harmony Centre. However, on 10 October 2011, reports indicated a coalition with the National Alliance was all but certain. Eventually a Unity-Reform Party-National Alliance coalition was formed.

References

External links

Official election results

''Latvia Facing Its Toughest Test Since 1991 In Upcoming Elections''
Jamestown Institute
Latvia
NSD: European Election Database {{Latvian elections

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

Parliamentary elections in Latvia