Latvia's First Party Latvijas Pirmā Partija | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Joint leadership of Ēriks Jēkabsons and Ainārs Šlesers. |
| Founded | May 25, 2002 |
| Dissolved | August 25, 2007 |
| Succeeded by | Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way |
| Headquarters | Riga |
| Ideology | Conservatism[1] Christian democracy Euroscepticism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Colours | Purple, green |
| Website | |
| lpp.lv | |
The Latvia's First Party (Latvian: Latvijas Pirmā Partija) was a socially conservative, Christian-democratic[2] right-wing political party in Latvia. It merged with Latvian Way to form Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way in 2007.
It was founded on 25 May 2002, led by Ēriks Jēkabsons and Ainārs Šlesers. The party included a number of priests from all the major branches of Christianity in Latvia (Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox and Baptist) as well as members of Jaunā Paaudze (New Generation), a controversial charismatic group. As a result, it was informally nicknamed "the party of priests" or the "pastors' party".
Using populist promises and support from religious organisations, it won 9.5% of the popular vote and 10 out of 100 seats in the Saeima after the elections of October 5, 2002 and joined all the coalition governments since that time until its dissolution. In the 2006 elections, it ran together with Latvian Way; the bloc took 8.58% but also won 10 seats in parliament. The parties merged in the following years.
- ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2006). "Latvia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
- ^ Close, Caroline; Delwit, Pascal (12 February 2019). "Liberal Parties and Elections". In Close, Caroline; van Haute, Emilie (eds.). Liberal Parties in Europe. Routledge. pp. 295–296. ISBN 9781351245494.