Varakļāni Municipality ( lv, Varakļānu novads) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Latgale Latgale ( ltg, Latgola; ; ger, Lettgallen; be, Латгалія, Łathalija; pl, Łatgalia; la, Lettgallia), also known as Latgalia is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region and is north of the Daugava River. While m ...

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 ...

. The municipality was formed in 2009 by

merging Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

Varakļāni Varakļāni (; german: Warkland, yi, וואַרקלאַן, russian: Варакляны) is a town in the Latgale historical region of Latvia. The population in 2020 was 1,740. History The town of Varakļāni was founded and established in the ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Murmastiene parish Murmastiene Parish ( lv, Murmastienes pagasts, ) is an administrative unit of Varakļāni Municipality, Latvia. The parish covers the nothern and western parts of the municipality. Its center is the village of Murmastiene. The parish was split o ...

and

Varakļāni parish Varakļāni (; german: Warkland, yi, וואַרקלאַן, russian: Варакляны) is a town in the Latgale historical region of Latvia. The population in 2020 was 1,740. History The town of Varakļāni was founded and established in the ...

; the administrative centre being Varakļāni. Parts of

Teiči Nature Reserve Teiči Nature Reserve ( lv, Teiču dabas rezervāts) is a nature reserve situated in eastern Latvia, spread across Madona, Varakļāni and Jēkabpils municipalities. History The nature reserve was created in 1982. Its purpose is to protect the ...

are located in Varakļāni Municipality. The population in 2020 was 2,990. Within the 2021 Latvian administrative reform it was initially planned to merge Varakļāni Municipality into

Rēzekne Municipality Rēzekne Municipality ( lv, Rēzeknes novads) is a municipality in Latgale, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 by merging Audriņi parish, Bērzgale parish, Čornaja parish, Dricāni parish, Feimaņi parish, Gaigalava parish, Grišk� ...

. After protests from locals, parts of which wanted to preserve the status quo or preferred joining

Madona Municipality Madona Municipality ( lv, Madonas novads) is a municipality in Vidzeme, Latvia. The administrative center is Madona. The total area of the municipality is , and the population in January 2013 was 26,953.Madona municipality Population Register Of ...

, the municipal council submitted a case to the

Constitutional Court of Latvia Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republikas Satversmes tiesa) is an independent court, which was established in 1996 on basis of amendments in law "On Judicial Power" and in the Constitution of Latvia made in 1994. ...

in June 2020. On 28 May 2021 the court declared the planned merge is unconstitutional. However, on June 31 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 po ...

voted to proceed with the merge, which prompted the involvement of the President of Latvia

Egils Levits Egils Levits (born 30 June 1955) is a Latvian politician, lawyer, political scientist and jurist who has served as the tenth president of Latvia since 8 July 2019. He was a member of the European Court of Justice from 2004 to 2019. During the la ...

to avoid triggering a constitutional crisis. Ultimately, a decision was made to postpone the decision on the future of the Varakļāni and Rēzekne municipalities until 2025. Due to this, the 2021 Latvian local elections for the new municipalities were also held in Varakļāni.

References

Municipalities of Latvia {{Latgale-geo-stub

See also

References