Latvian political party Harmony has submitted an application to the Constitutional Court, challenging the norm of the law that prohibits the use of third country languages, Russian included, in pre-election political promotion, as confirmed by the party’s co-chairman, Latvian member of the European Parliament Nils Ušakovs.
Harmony stresses in its application that this it is an “absolute violation of the fundamental principles of the Constitution – the restriction of freedom of expression and the prohibition of censorship”. No one has the right to limit communication with voters, says the political party.
“It’s absurd and, of course, an anti-constitutional restriction. This is absurd for many reasons. For example, we are fighting disinformation against the European Union. But if you, as a politician, decide to tell Russian-speaking voters in Daugavpils or Pļavnieki about the work of the European Parliament or the European Union about your money, you will be punished. It’s outright silly,” adds Ušakovs.
He claims that it is allowed to create a poster with the words “Liberty. Equality. Fraternity” in Bulgarian, but if the same is written in Russian, the person will be fined.
In summer 2023 the Latvian Saeima passed in the final reading amendments to the Pre-election Campaign Law, making it so that all pre-election political promotion in Latvia is done in state language only.
Saeima deputy Daiga Mieriņa explained that the use of the official language would apply only to paid pre-election promotion and promotional materials, thus parties and political candidates would be able to speak freely with their voters in another language.
The law provides that the state language must be used in pre-election promotion and promotional materials, which during the period of pre-election promotion are placed in electronic media radio and television programs, public outdoor and indoor locations, periodicals, newsletters, books and other printed media. It is also stipulated that paid promotion posted on the Internet must be in the state language.
The amendments also stipulate that during the period of pre-election campaigning before the elections to the European Parliament and municipal elections, these promotional materials may include or be provided with a translation into the official languages of member states of the European Union. In such cases, the use of the state language, both audibly and visually, must not be less or narrower than the content in the foreign language.
Amendments to the law were proposed in order to strengthen the position of the state language in the field of pre-election promotion – media programmes and broadcasts, public space, newspapers and magazines, as annotation to amendments say.
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