Non-citizens of Latvia are a disgrace for the EU

People came to the Freedom Monument, one of the symbols of Latvia, last Sunday with flowers and wreaths. The country celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the barricades - the confrontation between supporters of independence and the official Soviet authorities.

A funeral wreath with the inscription “Our and your freedom” was laid at the monument by representatives of the new Latvian social movement - the Congress of Non-Citizens. The barricades buried not only Soviet power, but also popular unity, Congress activists believe. Then everyone wanted change, wanted Latvian independence, believed in the slogan “For our freedom and yours,” popular at the barricades.

On this wave, in the first multi-party elections to the Supreme Council of Latvia in March 1991, the Popular Front won - 135 deputies out of 203. In their election program, they promised a “zero” option of citizenship, but six months later, in September 1991, the deputies voted that only citizens of Latvia before 1940 and their descendants would receive citizenship of the new, democratic Latvia.

The result is that after 20 years of independence, out of 2 million residents of Latvia, about 300 thousand have a non-citizen passport, although almost all of them have lived in Latvia for many years, and many were born here.

The authorities refuse to solve this problem. Back in the early 2000s, during negotiations on accession to the EU, Latvia convinced Europe that all non-citizens would soon receive citizenship through naturalization and violations of their rights would disappear by themselves. Europe allocated funding for these purposes, Latvia successfully mastered it, but after joining the EU it cut back and then completely stopped the free Latvian language and history courses required to pass the exam. The Integration Secretariat was liquidated, and the Naturalization Department lost its status as a separate institution. Last year, 2012, the rate of naturalization was one of the lowest in the last seventeen years. And the latest step of the authorities - in November last year, the second stage of collecting signatures for a referendum on granting citizenship to all non-citizens was canceled.

In response to this, Congress was created in December. Its activists intend to put an end to the problem of mass statelessness, since the state doesn’t care about it. But first, create a representative body for non-citizens. After all, the current government was not elected by non-citizens deprived of the right to vote, therefore, the government does not represent them. Meanwhile, the power elite directly depends on non-citizens! For example, the number of deputies to the European Parliament from Latvia is calculated from the total population - including “blacks” who do not have the right to vote in these elections to the EP. Not to mention the collection of taxes, from which no one exempted non-citizens.

The Congress of Non-Citizens is scheduled for the end of March this year. At the moment, registration of like-minded people is underway: those who want to participate in the new movement register on the Internet portal KONGRESS.LV.

After the general congress, negotiations with the authorities will begin, at which both this issue and the mechanism for the complete elimination of the institution of mass statelessness will be discussed. Whether this will be the “zero citizenship option” that the initiator of the referendum on non-citizens insisted on, or a radical change in the conditions of naturalization will be decided by Congress. This is not about undermining the foundations of the state, but only about restoring basic justice. And when a sufficient part of the political elite recognizes this, it will benefit not only non-citizens, but also the entire Latvian society.

To date, 1,663 people have signed in support of Congress. Of these, 81% are between the ages of 18 and 60, almost half of whom are between 30 and 50. It is important that Latvian citizens also stood up for non-citizens: 30% of them. Two thirds of the “signatories” are from Riga. In the near future, the leaders of the movement will launch an information campaign in the regions of Latvia. The goal over the coming months is to collect 10 thousand votes in support of the Congress.

It is assumed that representatives of non-citizens elected to Congress during fair elections will enter into cooperation agreements with those parliamentary factions in local governments, with the municipalities themselves, who agree to this. In addition, we would like our representatives to take part in the work of committees and commissions on a variety of issues - first in local governments, and then in the Seimas. Our plan is to ensure that the opinion of Congress, which we see as a full-fledged representative body, is taken into account when making various decisions - and we intend to create an appropriate mechanism for exerting influence.