For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK

For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK
Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK
LeaderRoberts Zīle
FoundedTB: 1 February 1993[1]
TB/LNNK: 21 June 1997
Dissolved23 July 2011
Merged intoNational Alliance
HeadquartersRiga
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing
European affiliationAlliance for Europe of the Nations (2002–2009) Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (2009–2011)
European Parliament groupUnion for Europe of the Nations (2004–2009) European Conservatives and Reformists (2009–2011)
ColoursMaroon, white, and gold
Party flag
Website
tb.lv

For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (Latvian: Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK, abbreviated to TB/LNNK) was a free-market, national conservative political party in Latvia.[3] In 2011, it dissolved and merged into the National Alliance.

The party was founded from smaller groups in 1993 as For Fatherland and Freedom (TB), with a focus on promoting the Latvian language and putting a cap on naturalisation of Latvian Non-citizens.[7] It won six Saeima seats in its first year, and 14 in 1995, when it entered the governing centre-right coalition. It merged with the moderate Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK) in 1997, and moved its emphasis to economic liberalisation. TB/LNNK's then-leader, Guntars Krasts, was Prime Minister from 1997 to 1998. It remained in government until 2004, and again from 2006.

Initially from the nationalist right, the party become more moderate after the 1997 merger. It also shifted from supporting economic interventionism to the free market.[8][9] A predominantly ethnic Latvian party,[10] the party's support base was university-educated,[11] middle class,[12] and concentrated in Riga.[13] The party was soft Eurosceptic,[14] and was a member of the anti-federalist Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. Its only MEP, party leader Roberts Zīle, sat with the ECR group in the European Parliament. It has caused some controversy with its participation in the Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires processions.

For the 2010 parliamentary election, it formed an alliance with the nationalist All for Latvia! party. In July 2011, both parties merged into a unitary party, bearing the name National Alliance.

  1. ^ Blūzma, Valdis (1998). Latvijas valsts atjaunošana, 1986.-1993 (in Latvian). LU žurnāla "Latvijas Vēsture" fonds. p. 368. ISBN 978-9984-643-00-7.
  2. ^ Pabriks, Artis; Purs, Aldis (2001). Latvia: The Challenges of Change. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415267304.
  3. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2010). "Latvia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011.
  4. ^ Bakke, Elisabeth (2010), "Central and East European party systems since 1989", Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989, Cambridge University Press, p. 79, ISBN 9781139487504, retrieved 17 November 2011
  5. ^ Bennich-Björkman, Li; Johansson, Karl Magnus (December 2012). "Explaining moderation in nationalism: Divergent trajectories of national conservative parties in Estonia and Latvia". Comparative European Politics. 10 (5): 585–607. doi:10.1057/cep.2011.28. S2CID 256522065.
  6. ^ "European election: Latvia". BBC News. 13 June 2004.
  7. ^ Nørgaard, Ole (1999). The Baltic States After Independence. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-85898-837-5.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mulders 57 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Novikova 204 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith 108 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith 114 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith 98 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith 110 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Berglund 151 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).