Harmony Centre

Saskaņas Centrs (SC, lett for the center of harmony, Russian: Центр согласия ) is an alliance of political parties in Latvia. There is 2011 of the Social Democratic Party and Communist Saskaņa Latvijas Sociālistiskā partija.

History

It was created in 2005 from the parties Tautas Saskaņas Partija, Latvijas Sociālistiskā Partija and Jaunais Centrs, the first two of which had previously belonged to the Alliance Par Cilvēka Tiesībām Vienotā Latvijā. In January 2009, the Sociāldemokrātu Savieniba joined the SC. First Chairman of the Saskaņas Centrs was Sergei Dolgopolovs, but this was replaced in the fall of 2005 by Nils Ušakovs. By January 2011, more participating parties joined together to party Saskaņa.

In the Latvian parliamentary election in October 2006, in which the SC took up the first time, it scored 17 out of 100 seats. It was so fourth largest faction in parliament. In the European elections in Latvia 2009 SC scored 19.6 % of the votes and two of the eight Latvian mandates; it was thus the second largest party after the conservative Pilsoniskā Savieniba. In the 2010 general election, SC received 26.04 % of the vote and was the second-strongest in the Latvian Parliament.

In the election in 2011, the Alliance has 31 seats ( 28 of which the Saskaņa and 3, the Socialist Party ) in Parliament the strongest force in the country.

Positions and classification

Saskaņas Centrs is committed to increasing the role of the Russian language in education and public administration in Latvia. It calls for a reform of citizenship law to allow a larger portion of the Russian-speaking population of the country, the Latvian nationality. The SC describes itself as "the only political party in Latvia, to work together in the ethnic Latvians and Russian speakers"; However, most of its members are members of the Russian-speaking community in Latvia. In addition, the SC occurs for traditional left-wing positions, such as the expansion of the welfare state, a Latvian. At European level, there has not affiliated with any European party; the two MEPs split up between the Socialist Group S & D and the socialist post- communist GUE - NGL.