• Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs: about 300 people renounce Latvian citizenship every year
• Working group on promotion of naturalisation process elaborated some proposals
• Jewish organisations conducted seminars about Jewish people living in Latvia
• 53% of Latvian residents support transition of education in municipal kindergartens into Latvian language
• The last native speaker of Livonian language has died

 According to a representative of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA), about 300 people renounce Latvian citizenship every year. About 100 people are deprived of the citizenship according to court decisions every yearly because of acceptance of other country’s citizenship without notifying the OCMA about it.  Persons who renounce Latvian citizenship most often receive Russian citizenship. Among European countries, most frequently persons choose German, United Kingdom’s and Swedish citizenship. Citizenship of one of the European countries usually is chosen by young and middle aged people, but Russian citizenship is more popular among older people. Vesti Segodnya

 According to the head of the parliamentary working group on promotion of naturalisation process Valdis Liepins, the state cannot affect all the main reasons why non-citizens do not naturalise as those reasons are the belief that Latvian citizenship should be granted them automatically, expectation for easier procedure, and the right to travel to the CIS countries without visas. Mr Liepins says the aim of the working group is not to find the ways how to increase the number of new citizens but how to improve the quality of the naturalisation procedure in order to make the new citizens to integrate in the society easier. Among the proposals of the working group there are: restructuring of the web site about naturalisation making it more user friendly and issuing materials motivating for naturalisation; changing the content of the naturalisation tests making those more oriented on comprehension instead of the memory and adding questions about modern Latvian culture; creating special courses for naturalisation applicants which would help to improve language proficiency, learn about Latvian history and culture. Latvijas Avize

 Latvijas Avize reports about a series of seminars about Jews in Latvia, their culture and life. The seminars were organised in different Latvian cities by Jewish organisations with an aim to promote comprehension about mutual relations between Jews and Latvians.

 According to a public opinion survey conducted by agency TNS and LNT, 53% of Latvian residents support transition of education in municipal kindergartens into Latvian language. 43% of respondents do not support it. Telegraf

The last native speaker of Livonian language Grizelda Kristina has died in Canada, aged 103. There remain around 15 people who communicate in Livonian freely. Livonians are a Finno-Ugric indigenous people of Latvia. Vesti Segodnya

• Newspapers report about the process of the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented
• MP Janis Urbanovics: Concord Centre is not a mono-ethnic party anymore
• Representatives of Latvian intelligentsia criticize the success of the Concord Centre in Riga

Vesti Segodnya and Latvijas Avize report about the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented initiated by non-governmental organisation Congress of Non-Citizens (CN). The first day of the elections was held on the same day with the municipal elections. According to a representative of the CN Elizabete Krivcova, 2,100 persons voted at the special polling stations in Riga and other Latvian cities and more than 1,000 on the Internet by the 6 p.m. of the first elections day. The elections will continue until 11 June.

Neatkariga prints an interview with the head of the Saeima’s faction of the Concord Centre (CC) in the Saeima Janis Urbanovics. Mr Urbanovics believes that the results of the local elections in Riga prove that CC is not a mono-ethnic party anymore because it gain support also from ethnic Latvians. However, Mr Urbanovics does not agree that there was no ethnic voting at all, but he believes that a large step was made towards overcoming ethnic voting. As reported, the CC got more than 58% of votes in Riga.

Vesti Segodnya reports about some of the comments from representatives of Latvian intelligentsia about the results of the local elections in Riga. Commenting the victory of the Concord Centre (CC) at the elections, writer Gundega Repse stated “I did not think that Riga will be given to occupants”. The other well-known writer Mara Zalite stated that ethnic Latvians who voted for the CC betrayed Latvia’s interests. Shortly before the elections, Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis compared those who vote for the CC with the "lumpens", alleged ethnic Russians who vote for the CC as having schizophrenic state of mind, and compared ethnic Latvian old ladies who vote for this party because of the free-of-charge local transportation with prostitutes who sell themselves for more expensive price.

• The Concord Centre convincingly won in Riga – more than 58% of voters supported it.

Newspapers report about the results of the local elections in Latvia held on 1 June. In Riga, the Concord Centre received 58,54 % of votes or 39 out of 60 mandates in the City Council. This means that effective Mayor of Riga Nils Usakovs will remain to be the head of the city. The nationalists’ party All for Latvia!-FF/LNIM received 17,86% or 12 mandates and the Unity received 14,13% or 9 mandates. One of the main opponents of Nils Usakovs, the candidate for the post of Mayor of Riga Sarmite Elerte (the Unity), who originally had the first sequence number in the Unity candidate list, was moved to the third place in the list because the voters put the largest number of “cross outs” to her name. Experts commenting the results of elections, believe that the failure of many so-called “ethnic Latvian” parties in Riga could be explained by the fact that those were not able to unite for the elections. The elections were also characterised by very low activity of the voters – only 45,85% of the residents who have the right to vote took part in the elections.

• Saeima repeatedly did not include into the plenary session’s agenda the proposal on transition of all municipal kindergartens into Latvian language only
• “Pasazieru vilciens” asked the Ministry of Justice to initiate a discussion about usage of information in foreign languages in the area of passengers transportation
• Court cancelled the decision of the Jurmala City Council whichbanned setting polling stations for the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented in the city

Yesterday, the majority of the Saeima repeatedly refused to include on agenda of the plenary session a proposal of the nationalist’s union to transfer education in all municipal kindergartens into Latvian language only. 41 MPs (mostly from the Unity and the nationalists’ union All for Latvia!-FF/LNIM) supported the proposal and 43 MPs (mostly the Concord Centre and the Reforms Party) voted against it. Vesti Segodnya notes that before the beginning of the plenary, young activists of the nationalists’ union handed out leaflets saying voting for this draft law shows whether you support Latvian language as the only state language in Latvia and that situation when part of Latvian children study in alien language weakens the state language and creates serious threat. Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize

The railway passengers transportation company “Pasazieru vilciens” asked the Ministry of Justice to initiate a discussion about usage of information in foreign languages in the area of passengers transportation.  Such action was caused by the fact that the State Language Centre (SLC) did not allow the company to write translated words in English on the displays at the regional train stations of the popular tourist destinations. The transportation company wanted to translate such words as “departure”, “route”, “platform”, “number”, “arrival” and write those with small letters in English under Latvian titles. Head of control department of the SLC Antons Kursitis stated that such actions are forbidden by the legal acts and exceptions may cause requests for other changes in rules about language usage in provision of information and, thus, endanger the state language. Mr Kursitis also believes that usage of English is a cover for more frequent introduction of usage of Russian language. Neatkariga

The court cancelled the decision of the Jurmala City Council forbidding setting 6 of 7 polling stations for the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented in Jurmala. Thus all the polling stations will be located where it was initially planned.  As reported, the City Council explained its decision by the fact that the polling stations of the Congress are situated close to the polling stations for the municipal elections and there is a possibility that the organisers of the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented will agitate and disrupt the order by other means. Vesti Segodnya

 

• Working group will analyse the low rate of naturalisation in Latvia
• Jurmala City Council banned setting polling stations for the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented in the city

The Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee established a working group analysing the low rate of naturalisation in Latvia. Its conclusion will be forwarded to the Ministry of Interior and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs. Vesti Segodnya

Representatives of the Congress of Non-Citizens appealed in the court the decision of the Jurmala City Council which forbids setting 6 of 7 polling stations for the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented in Jurmala. The City Council explained its decision by the fact that the polling stations of the Congress are situated close to the polling stations for the municipal elections and there is a possibility that the organisers of the elections to the Parliament of Unrepresented will be agitating and disrupt the order by other means. The Congress, in its turn, argued that the City Council violated the right to freedom of assembly. Vesti Segodnya