The political party Latvia in First Place (LPV) has sent a letter to the country’s law enforcement institutions to look at the behaviour or translator and poet Liāna Langa’s (real name Liāna Bokša) in publicly inciting hatred between people of different nationalities, as reported by representatives of LPV.
The party sent a letter to the prosecutor general, Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB) director and the chief of the State Security Service (VDD).
LPV leader Ainārs Šlesers invites security services to look into Langa’s provocative social network posts, their content, form and arguments, as well as this person’s influence on her audience.
In the letter, authors stress it is important to determine if Langa’s behaviour is not backed by countries unfriendly to Latvia, especially the Russian Federation.
“Laga is the initiator of the hashtags #RunāLatviski and #AtkrieviskoLatviju. On social networks she appeals to Latvians’ national feelings using these hashtags, specifically cultivating hate against those Latvian national minority citizens for whom Russian is their native language. Langa presents herself as “an implementer of the national policy”, which eliminates the policy of Russification, bilingualism and attempts to ensure the protection of the state language. Additionally, on her Twitter and Facebook accounts, Langa has several thousand followers who follow her posts,” LPV told the media.
The letter stresses that
every day Langa publishes thoughts “about Russians who are in charge and who terrorise Latvian businessemen, Russian-speaking service workers and businessmen who are “oases of Russism” and “Russists” that violate her imagined order”.
“Hiding behind cares for the use of Latvian language in the public space, Bokša actively uses the popular cancel culture in her rhetoric and aims it at the Russian minority [in Latvia]. Although Bokša claims she is not against people of specifically Russian nationality, rather she is in favour of “de-Russification of Latvia’s public space”, in reality she spreads information that is hate speech and is in breach of Section 78 of the Criminal Law,” LPV letter mentions.
In the end of the letter LPV mentions that playing with freedom of expression, constitutional foundations of the state and minority rights without impunity is unacceptable. Authors of the letter also stress that “freedom and dignity of any person in Latvia needs to be protected, because every citizen in our country is a value and has the right to feel safe in their country”.
LPV believes “persons who intentionally provoke a lynching, including people like Langa,” should keep in mind that the law provides punishment for such acts.
“We believe this is not just a matter of a country ruled by law. It is also a matter of national security, ensuring which is the duty of law enforcement institutions and the country’s special services!” the letter from LPV mentions.
Šlesers had previously publicly voiced plans to turn to law enforcers with a request to look into Langa’s past. “Latvian language is the only state language. Full stop. There is no room for discussion. But now we see terminology like unrussionalisation. It sounds noble, and it definitely reaches out to many nationally-minded Latvian people, but you should always ask the question – who is the author of such initiatives, who is behind it?” said the leader of LPV during Saeima debates on the 15th of June.
During this meeting Šlesers sharply criticised Langa and asked the deputies present if they know who Liāna Langa is and what she was up to in Crimea during the Soviet Era.
Last year Twitter and Facebook saw the start of #RunāLatviski #AtkrieviskoLatviju campaigns.
Recently more than 10 000 signatures were collected on ManaBalss.lv public initiatives platform in favour of an initiative on the strengthening of the state language in Latvia with law amendments.
The author of this initiative is Langa, who is the one behind the #RunāLatviski #AtkrieviskoLatviju campaigns.
The reported objective of these campaigns is the reinforcement of the state language and “derussification” of Latvia’s public linguistic space.
Langa said she was motivated to start the campaign by the de facto bilingualism in all of Latvia, because, according to her, society, state institutions and commercial companies have ignored the Constitution’s letter and spirit, as well as the will of the people as dictated in the 2012 language referendum, in which Latvian language was declared as the unifying language in Latvia.
Over the course of the year the #RunāLatviski #AtkrieviskoLatviju campaigns have become popular on social networks. Many hundreds of volunteers write letters to institutions and companies, contact them on social networks, asking them to take out Russian language from their public communication.
Even President Egils Levits took notice and appreciated #Runālatviski campaign, which he mentioned in his speech to the 13th Saeima on the 8th of September 2022: “I would especially like to outline involvement of the public. For example, poet Liāna Langa’s and other activists’ mentioning that Russian language is unjust popularity has made many people understand the influence of this colonial heritage. And many have changed their position. Because our country has a shared state language. It is a language for democratic communication for all, regardless of the language used in parallel, nationality or native language.”
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