People's Servants for Latvia (, TKL), initially Motherland alliance (), is a

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

party in Latvia, founded in 2004. Its chairman was surgeon

Viktors Kalnbērzs Viktors is a Latvian masculine given name. It is a cognate of the English given name Victor and may refer to: *Viktors Arājs (1910–1988), Latvian collaborator and Nazi SS officer * Viktors Alksnis (born 1950), Russian-born Latvian politician ...

and its membership for most of its existenceincluded currency exchange businessman Juris Žuravļovs.

History

The founding parties of the Motherland alliance were the Social Democratic Welfare Party (founded by Žuravļovs in 1998 as the Welfare Party), "For Freedom, Social Justice and Equal Rights" (Russian abbreviation "ЗаСССР", meaning "For

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

") and the Latvian Youth Party of Jānis Kuzins. Since 2005 Motherland was represented on the

Riga City Council Riga City Council () is the government of the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Its meeting place is in the Riga Town Hall (''Rīgas rātsnams)'' at the Town Hall Square (''Rātslaukums'') in the very heart of Riga. The Riga City Council con ...

, being elected in a coalition with the

Socialist Party of Latvia The Socialist Party of Latvia (, abbr. LSP; ) is a communist party in Latvia. It is positioned on the Far-left politics, far-left on the political spectrum. It was formed in 1994 as a successor party to the Communist Party of Latvia, which was ...

. In the 2006 parliamentary election Motherland got 2.08% and failed to gain representation in the

Saeima The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the p ...

. The coalition was dissolved in 2008. The coalition was succeeded by the For the Motherland! () party in 2007. Alīna Ļebedeva unsuccessfully stood as a candidate from the party in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...

. From 2012 to 2018 the party name was VSK For an Independent Latvia! (). For the

2018 Latvian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 6 October 2018. Following the elections, a coalition government was formed by Who owns the state?, the New Conservative Party, Development/For!, the National Alliance and New Unity. Despite lea ...

, the party was refounded by Žuravļovs and Kuzins in April 2018 as SDK Dzimtene (''SDK Motherland'') as a member of the For an Alternative () alliance and advocated for the introduction of a

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

economy in Latvia. Before the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

the alliance was renamed in March 2019, this time to New Harmony, taking inspiration from election competitors SDP Harmony and

New Unity The New Unity (, JV) is a centre-right political alliance in Latvia. Its members are Unity and four other regional parties, and it is orientated towards liberal-conservatism and liberalism. History Before the 2018 Latvian parliamentary ele ...

. The new list ultimately did not contest the election. SDK Dzimtene was renamed Par Jaunu Saskaņu (For a New Harmony) in March 2020, garnering 1,7% of votes in the 2020 snap Riga City Council election under the leadership of Tatjana Kargina. Kargina is the ex-wife of former

Parex Bank Parex Bank was a Latvian bank founded in 1992 by Valērijs Kargins and as a privately owned full-service banking company in Riga, Latvia that was very dominant in currency exchange in the 1990s. It had local and international clients in both ...

chairman

Valērijs Kargins Valērijs Kargins or Valery Mikhailovich Kargin (; born 27 March 1961, in Riga) is a Latvian economist and banker was the president of Parex Banka, from 1998 to 2008. In October 2000, he and Viktor Krasovitsky had accumulated over 200 million ...

. In June 2022 the party leadership was taken over by the activists of the association ''People's Servants'', a group founded during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

to oppose restrictions. The leader of the group, Aivars Smans, became the new chairman of the party that was subsequently renamed People's Servants for Latvia.

Election results

Legislative elections

References

Defunct political party alliances in Latvia Russian political parties in Latvia Socialist parties in Latvia Left-wing political party alliances {{Latvia-party-stub