The Christian Democratic Union (, KDS) is a minor

Christian-democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

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 ...

. It is a member of the

Awakening Awakening(s) may refer to: * Wakefulness, the state of being conscious Religion * Awakening (Finnish religious movement), a Lutheran movement in Finland * Enlightenment in Buddhism, from ''bodhi'' ("awakening") * Great Awakening, several period ...

alliance and is currently led by

Māra Viktorija Zilgalve Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, the ancient Dawn-goddess, previously called Austra, and, not at all, although often stated, the same as Zemes māte (Earth goddess, Mother Earth, pace). Names Alternative names: Mār ...

and Secretary General Armands Agrums.

History

The KDS was founded in 1991. The party participated in the 1993 Saeima election and obtained 5.0% of the vote and six seats. In the next parliamentary election in 1995 the party contested in alliance with the

Latvian Farmers' Union The Latvian Farmers' Union (, LZS) is an agrarian political party in Latvia. Initially formed in 1917 during the period of Latvian War of Independence (as ), it was banned in 1934. It was re-established in 1990. It is positioned in the centre o ...

and won 6.3% of the vote and eight seats. In 1998 it joined forces with the

Workers' Party Workers' Party is a name used by several political parties throughout the world. The name has been used by both organisations on the left and right of the political spectrum. It is currently used by followers of Marxism, Marxism–Leninism, Maoism ...

and the

Latvian Green Party The Latvian Green Party (, LZP) is a green conservative political party in Latvia. Founded in 1990, the party was a member of the European Green Party from 2003 until its expulsion in 2019. It is positioned in the centre-right of the political s ...

, in 2002 with

Latvia's First Party The Latvia's First Party () was a socially conservative, Christian-democratic right-wing political party in Latvia. It merged with Latvian Way to form Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way in 2007. It was founded on 25 May 2002, led by Ēriks J ...

and in 2006 with the

Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (, LSDSP) is a Social democracy, social-democratic list of political parties in Latvia, political party in Latvia and the second oldest existing Latvian political party after the Latvian Farmers' Uni ...

. In the 2010 legislative election it got just 0.36% of the votes and thus failed to overcome the 5% threshold. The two European elections in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

were unsuccessful (0.4% and 0.3% of the vote respectively). The party formed the

SKG Alliance The SKG Alliance () (registered as LSDSP/KDS/GKL) was an association of political parties established on March 28, 2018, which consisted of the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party, and the Christian Democratic Union. It was reorganized in ...

with two other parties, the

and Honor to Serve Our Latvia, to run together in the 2018 Saeima election. After the Social Democrats later left, the alliance was renamed to Awakening. Since 2019, the Awakening alliance has not participated in any elections.

Program

The party's platform is based on

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

values. Economically the Christian Democratic Union advocates the elimination of corruption, lower taxes, free enterprise, the strengthening of agriculture and the improvement of infrastructure. The party favours the model of a

social market economy The social market economy (SOME; ), also called Rhine capitalism, Rhine-Alpine capitalism, the Rhenish model, and social capitalism, is a socioeconomic model combining a free-market capitalist economic system with social policies and enough re ...

in the tradition of

Ludwig Erhard Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician and economist affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and Chancellor of Germany (1949–), chancellor of West Ge ...

.delfi.lv
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References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Political parties in Latvia 1991 establishments in Latvia 1991 establishments in the Soviet Union Conservative parties in Latvia Political parties established in 1991 Pro-independence parties in the Soviet Union European Christian Political Party