Last modified: 2023-06-10 by 
zachary harden
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image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 April 2020
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Latvian Green Party (Latvijas Zaļā partija, LZP) was founded on 13th
January 1990. It contested all elections which took place since its founding,
usually in coalitions with other parties, most notably with the Latvian Farmers'
Union (Latvijas Zemnieku savienība), with which it has jointly
contested as part of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku
savienība) since 2002. The party participated in the governments of Latvia
1993-1998, 2002-2011 and 2014-2019, its member Indulis Emsis being the world's
first Green politician to become a Prime Minister (March-December 2014). The
world's first head of state affiliated to a Green Party is also its member:
Raimonds Vējonis, President of Latvia 2015-2019. Unlike most Green parties, the
LZP is a rightist party, often accused for supporting reactionary, nationalist,
and anti-LGBT positions, which led to growing discordance with other members of
the European Green Party, in whose founding it had participated, and its
eventual expulsion in 2019.
Sources:
[1] Latvian Green Party at
Wikipedia (in English):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Green_Party
[2] Latvian Green
Party at Wikipedia (in Latvian):
https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvijas_Za%C4%BC%C4%81_partija
Tomislav Todorovic, 5 April 2020
The flag of Latvian Green Party is derived from the national flag by
repainting the field into green. While the party Statutes only mention the flag
existence without any description [1], the explicit confirmation of its design
are the words of the party chairman Edgars Tavars who, when commenting on the
expulsion from European Green Party, also said [2]: "Our flag is
green-white-green, not rainbow or red." The flag design was originally
introduced by the Environmental Protection Club (Vides aizsardzības klubs),
which was founded in 1987 [3] and still uses it [4, 5, 6]. Its use by the party
can be verified since 2014 [7, 8], although it must have been adopted earlier,
perhaps as early as the founding time, for it has been an important political
symbol in pre-independence years: on black and white TV screens, it cannot be
distinguished from Latvian national flag, which was banned at the time, the ban
having been circumvented by use of a similar, yet distinctive flag [3, 9]. While
there have never been many photos published, still there have been enough to
verify its continuous use in the years after 2014 as well [10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15].
Sources:
[1] Latvian Green Party website - Statutes:
http://www.zp.lv/lv/par-mums/statuti/
[2] Baltijas Balss website:
https://lat.bb.lv/raksts/sabiedriba/2019/11/10/eiropas-zalie-izmet-lzp-tavars-musu-karogs-ir-zal-balt-zals-nevis-varaviksnes
[3] Latvian Public Broadcasting website:
https://lr2.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/latvijas-simtgades-stastu-raksti/vides-aizsardzibas-klubs.a100580/
[4] Jauns.lv website - Photos from the Environmental Protection Club seat on
2012-02-28:
https://jauns.lv/foto/zinas/19595-vides-aizsardzibas-klubs-svin-25-gadu-jubileju
[5] Latvian Green Party website - News report on 2015-12-19:
http://www.zp.lv/lv/raksts/id/vides-aizsardzibas-klubs-zala-atmoda/
[6]
Environmental Protection Club at Facebook - Photo gallery:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/videsklubs/photos/
[7] Latvian Green Party
website - News report on 2014-08-26:
http://www.zp.lv/lv/raksts/id/noticis-pikets-pret-rigas-izpardosanu/
[8]
Latvian Green Party website - News report on 2014-10-03:
http://www.zp.lv/lv/raksts/id/iesniedz-pieteikumu-tiesa-par-lucavsalas-izsoles-atcelsanu/
[9] Latvian National History Museum website - Virtual exhibition about the
Environmental Protection Club:
http://lnvm.lv/?p=11293
[10] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo
uploaded on 2016-03-02:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.415118762031982/466383060238885/?type=3
[11] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2018-04-07:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.438364063040785/835906309953223/?type=3
[12] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2018-09-02:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.415118762031982/950074038536449/?type=3
[13] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2018-09-04:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.415118762031982/951343511742835/?type=3
[14] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2019-11-05:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.438364063040785/1244874155723101/?type=3
[15] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2019-11-05:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.438364063040785/1244874159056434/?type=3
Tomislav Todorovic, 5 April 2020