Latvia: Euroscepticism—Between Reason and Treason

The scenery of Latvia’s political parties does not differ much from the country’s landscape in Autumn. Filled with political positions of various colours, kinds and shades, Latvian political parties struggle for a presence in the national parliament. Modern Latvia has not seen the classical left-right divisions that are characteristic of its Western-European counterparts and instead, has political cleavages that revolved around ethnic and geopolitical positions. Meanwhile, political parties have been efficiently using catch-all and populist methods to attract voters. The death of old political parties and the birth of new ones shortly before elections has become an unwritten tradition, fuelled by individual politicians migrating to new parties along with their alliances.