The Christian Democratic Union ( lv, Kristīgi demokrātiskā savienība, KDS) is a minor
Christian-democratic political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. It is currently led by
Māra Viktorija Zilgalve 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 and won 6.3% of the vote and eight seats. In 1998 it joined forces with the
Workers' Party and the
Latvian Green Party, in 2002 with
Latvia's First Party and in 2006 with the
Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party.
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
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
were unsuccessful (0.4% and 0.3% of the vote respectively).
The party formed an alliance with two other parties, the
Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party and Honor to Serve Our Latvia, to run together in the
2018 Saeima election.
Program
The party's platform is based on
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...
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; german: soziale Marktwirtschaft), also called Rhine capitalism, Rhine-Alpine capitalism, the Rhenish model, and social capitalism, is a socioeconomic model combining a free-market capitalist economic system alo ...
in the tradition of
Ludwig Erhard
Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economi ...
.
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 Movement