;
russian: Достойная жизнь для каждого)
, website
saskanascentrs.lv
Harmony Centre ( lv, Saskaņas Centrs, SC; russian: Центр Cогласия, ЦC) was a
social-democratic political alliance in
Latvia. It originally consisted of five political parties: the
National Harmony Party
The National Harmony Party ( Latvian: ''Tautas Saskaņas partija'', TSP; russian: Партия народного согласия) was a political party in Latvia.
The party identified with social democracy. It supported further liberalisation o ...
, the
Socialist Party of Latvia
The Socialist Party of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Sociālistiskā partija, abbr. LSP; russian: Социалистическая партия Латвии) is a communist party in Latvia. It is positioned on the far-left on the political spectrum.
It ...
,
New Centre
The Centrists (french: Les Centristes, LC), formerly known as New Centre (''Nouveau Centre'', NC) and European Social Liberal Party (''Parti Social Libéral Européen'', PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of ...
, the
Daugavpils City Party
The Daugavpils City Party ( lv, Daugavpils pilsētas partija, 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 ele ...
, and the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
. Through a series of mergers they were eventually reduced to two:
Social Democratic Party "Harmony"
The Social Democratic Party "Harmony" ( lv, Sociāldemokrātiskā partija "Saskaņa"; russian: Социал-демократическая партия «Согласие», Sotsial-demokraticheskaya partiya «Soglasiye», S),The party officially ...
and the Socialist Party.
Ideologically a
catch-all grouping of
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...
and
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
parties, the alliance also aimed to represent the interests of
Russians in Latvia
In Latvia, Russians have been the largest ethnic minority in the country for the last two centuries. The number of Russians in Latvia more than quadrupled during the Soviet occupation of Latvia when the size of the community grew from 8.8% of ...
.
History
Founded on 9 July 2005,
Harmony Centre emerged from
For Human Rights in a United Latvia, an electoral alliance formed by the National Harmony Party, the Socialist Party and
Equal Rights, that partially dissolved in 2003. Equal Rights represented the interests of the Russian minority and the
Russian language in Latvia
The Russian language in Latvia has grown from being the fourth most-spoken language when parts of Latvia were governorates in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century to the second most commonly used language at home by far in independent ...
. The National Harmony Party, New Centre and the Daugavpils City Party joined at foundation, the Socialist Party in December 2005 and the Social Democratic Party in January 2009. The alliance aimed to consolidate the Latvian centre-left and promote Latvian-Russian amity. The first chairman was the head of New Centre
Sergey Dolgopolov
Sergey Leonidovich Dolgopolov (russian: Серге́й Леонидович Долгополов, lv, Sergejs Dolgopolovs; born 1941) is a Latvian Russian politician. He is a member of Harmony, former deputy mayor of Riga (2001–2005) and ...
who was replaced in Autumn 2005 by
Channel One Russia
Channel One ( rus, Первый канал, r=Pervyy kanal, p=ˈpʲervɨj kɐˈnal, t=First Channel) is a Russian state-controlled television channel. It is the first television channel to broadcast in the Russian Federation. Its headquarters ...
Journalist
Nils Ušakovs
Nils Ušakovs (russian: Нил Валерьевич Ушаков, ''Nil Valeryevich Ushakov'') (born 8 June 1976) is a Latvian Russian politician, former mayor of Riga and former journalist. He has been the board chairman of the left-wing part ...
.
In 2010 and 2011 the National Harmony Party, New Centre, Social Democratic Party and Daugavpils City Party merged to form the
Social Democratic Party "Harmony"
The Social Democratic Party "Harmony" ( lv, Sociāldemokrātiskā partija "Saskaņa"; russian: Социал-демократическая партия «Согласие», Sotsial-demokraticheskaya partiya «Soglasiye», S),The party officially ...
, which continued in alliance with the Socialist Party until 2014.
In its nine years of existence, Harmony Centre became the most popular political force in the
Latvian Parliament but remained in opposition. Various positions on Latvia's
National Question
''National question'' is a term used for a variety of issues related to nationalism. It is seen especially often in socialist thought and doctrine.
In socialism
* ''Social Democracy and the National Question'' by Vladimir Medem in 1904
* ''So ...
,
citizenship law and close relations with
United Russia
United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Russian conservative political party. As the largest party in Russia, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the State Duma , havin ...
, perceived by the centre-right as incompatible with Latvian national interests, led to the alliance being excluded from government. In 2014, Harmony and the Socialist Party participated separately in the
European election of that year.
In the
2018 parliamentary election Harmony once again received the most votes, securing 23 out of 100 seats in the Latvian parliament, but was left outside the coalition.
Election results
Legislative elections
European Parliament elections
Political positions
Social democracy, progressive income taxation, minority rights, participatory democracy, internationalisation of higher education, good relations with Russia.
Economically, Harmony Centre supported increased social spending, in order to boost the economy and increase general welfare.
On the occupation of Latvia
Both chairman of "Harmony Centre's" Parliamentary faction
Jānis Urbanovičs and leader of the alliance
Nils Ušakovs
Nils Ušakovs (russian: Нил Валерьевич Ушаков, ''Nil Valeryevich Ushakov'') (born 8 June 1976) is a Latvian Russian politician, former mayor of Riga and former journalist. He has been the board chairman of the left-wing part ...
have rejected calling
Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940
The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed in ...
an "
occupation
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
", arguing that from the perspective of
international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
it was an "
annexation" instead, because
Kārlis Ulmanis
Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (; 4 September 1877 – 20 September 1942) was a Latvian politician. He was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians of pre-World War II Latvia during the Interwar period of independence from November 1918 to ...
actively collaborated with Soviet representatives in Latvia, and compared recognizing occupation of Latvia to repressions against the society. However, they admitted that "If it had been clearly stated already at the very beginning that recognizing the fact would in no way harm people who immigrated during the Soviet times, Harmony Center would agree to recognize even ten such occupations."
Ušakovs has emphasized that "no doubt Latvia was forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union and it was followed by brutal Stalinist regime crimes against Latvia and its people", but also believed it's important to say that Soviet regime ended when the then-Russian Federation’s army left the country, claiming that otherwise, certain politic forces could bring up "de-occupation" again. Later Urbanovičs summarized similarly: "there were occupations in Latvia, there are no occupants". Both of them have also proposed to postpone the debate on national and historical issues and focus on the economic and social problems instead.
MP from Harmony Centre
Boris Tsilevitch has pointed out that no official documents testify Harmony Centre recognizing the occupation. MEP from Harmony Centre and chairman of the
Socialist Party of Latvia
The Socialist Party of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Sociālistiskā partija, abbr. LSP; russian: Социалистическая партия Латвии) is a communist party in Latvia. It is positioned on the far-left on the political spectrum.
It ...
, one of the parties making up Harmony Centre,
Alfrēds Rubiks
Alfrēds Rubiks (russian: Альфред Петрович Рубикс, ''Alfred Petrovich Rubiks''; born 24 September 1935, in Daugavpils), is a Latvian communist politician and a former leader of the Communist Party of Latvia. He was a Member ...
has also declared that he has never recognized Latvia’s occupation and never will, because he believes the country was not occupied by the Soviet Union.
On the Ukrainian crisis
Urbanovičs blamed the
Revolution of Dignity
The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, on what he believed were the "West's efforts to sabotage Russian plans for a
Eurasian Customs Union
The Eurasian Customs Union (EACU; russian: Таможенный союз ЕАЭС, Tamozhenyi soyuz) was a customs union consisting of all the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. The customs union was a principal task of the Eurasian E ...
" and called the
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation "a desperate measure on the part of Russia in order to prevent economic and military imbalance in the contact zone of Southeastern Europe between NATO and Russia", citing the precedent of
Abrene County as a partial justification.
Ušakovs has said he fully supports Ukrainian
territorial integrity
Territorial integrity is the principle under international law that gives the right to sovereign states to defend their borders and all territory in them of another state. It is enshrined in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and has been recognized ...
, "including Crimea", but did not want to analyze who was to blame for what happened in Ukraine and called for an international investigation. He also criticised EU sanctions against Russia as ineffective and damaging for the Latvian economy. On 4 March 2014, 28 Harmony Centre deputies voted against a resolution of the
Saeima that strongly condemned Russia's military involvement and aggression in Ukraine.
References
External links
www.saskanascentrs.lv
{{Latvian political parties
2005 establishments in Latvia
Defunct political party alliances in Latvia
Russian political parties in Latvia
Russian nationalist organizations
Social democratic parties in Latvia