An official signature campaign that could lead to Russian becoming an official language in Latvia gets underway Nov. 1, the Central Election Commission in Rīga has announced.

The month-long campaign seeks support for amending the Latvian constitution to allow Russian to have equal status with the Latvian language.

Under current wording, Latvian is the only official language in the country. However, some members of the country’s Russian-speaking community have been pushing to give their native language official status as well.

On Sept. 9, the Central Election Commision received a petition with 12,533 signatures, marking the first step in an initiative to change the constitution. The petition was submitted by the Russian-oriented “Dzimtā valoda” (Native Language) group.

If at least 10 percent of the eligible voters in the last parliamntary election—a total of 154,379 persons—sign on by Nov. 30, then the constitutional amendments will be presented to the Saeima for approval. If the Saeima approves the amendments, then Russian would become the second official language. If MPs amend or reject the constitutional changes, then the legislation would be presented to voters in a national referendum.

The signatures gathered on the “Dzimtā valoda” petition will count toward the total needed.

The proposed constitutional amendments would change:

• Paragraph 4, which states that Latvian is the state language.
• Paragraph 18, which stipulates the oath made by members of parliament. Under current language, they promise to strengthen Latvian as the only state language.
• Paragraph 21, which makes Latvian the language of the Saeima.
• Paragraph 101, which makes Latvian the official language of local governments.
• Paragraph 104, which guarantees people the right to address government bodies and to receive an answer in Latvian.

Outside of Latvia, citizens who wish to sign on to the campaign may do so at one of 39 designated embassies or consulates. A list of the sites is available from the Central Election Commission’s website, www.cvk.lv.

Latvia’s new three-party coalition government, which will be headed by current Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, has been confirmed by the country’s parliament.

After about two hours of debate Oct. 25, the Latvian parliament confirmed the government on a 57-38 vote. While the new government seemed assured of at least 56 votes, it earned one more when Ingmārs Līdaka, a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība, or ZZS), appeared to break from his caucus to support Dombrovskis.

However, according to Latvian media reports, Līdaka apparently voted in favor by mistake. ZZS head Augusts Brigmanis told the LETA news agency that Līdaka tried to correct the error after the vote was already recorded.

Also backing the new government were all MPs from Dombrovskis’ centrist party Unity (Vienotība), the Zatlers Reform Party (Zatlera Reformu partija, or ZRP) and the right-wing National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”). The three parties makes up the new coalition government. An additional six votes came from former ZRP members who broke with the party to create an independent caucus.

The 38 votes against the new government came as expected from MPs representing the centre-left and Russian-oriented Harmony Centre (Saskaņas Centrs) and the conservative ZZS.

Three MPs—Viktors Jakovļevs of Harmony Centre as well as Ilona Jurševska and Kārlis Seržants of the Union of Greens and Farmers—did not vote.

The new government includes:

• Justice Minister Gaidis Bērziņš (National Alliance), 41, a practicing lawyer and a lecturer in law at the University of Latvia. Bērziņš was the minister of justice from 2006-2009.
• Health Minister Ingrīda Circene (Unity), 54, who previously served in the post during former Prime Minister Einars Repše’s government from 2002-2004.
• Culture Minister Žaneta Jaunzeme-Grende (National Alliance), 47, former chairperson of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
• Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis (ZRP), 42, who currently is an attorney for SIA BBF Consulting.
• Education Minister Robert Ķīlis (ZRP), 43, an associate professor of economics anthropology at the Stockholm School of Economics in Rīga.
• Defense Minister Artis Pabriks (Unity), 45, who will continue in the position from the previous government.
• Economics Minister Daniels Pavļuts (ZRP), 35, who currently heads corporate relations for the Latvian branch of the Swedish-owned bank Swedbank.
• Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičš (ZRP), 38. He previously was chief-of-staff for former President Valdis Zatlers.
• Transportation Minister Aivis Ronis, 43, a former diplomat who has been deemed nonpartisan. Currently president of the Latvian Association of Private Banks, Ronis has served in various diplomatic posts and was foreign minister in 2010.
• Edmunds Sprūdžs (ZRP), 31, minister for environmental protection and regional development. Sprūdžs originally was ZRP’s candidate for prime minister.
• Agriculture Minister Laimdota Straujuma (Unity), 60, who currently is an assistant state secretary in the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Regional Development.
• Finance Minister Andris Vilks (Unity), 48, who will continue in the job from the previous government.
• Welfare Minister Ilze Vinķele (Unity), 39, who has served as the Ministry of Finance’s parliamentary secretary and currently is pursuing a doctorate in political science at the University of Latvia.

Confirmation of the new government followed the Sept. 17 special parliamentary election, which was called after Latvian voters overwhelmingly approved a July referendum to dissolve the 10th Saeima. The 11th Saiema began work Oct. 17.

Latvian President Andris Bērziņš has nominated current Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis to form the country’s next government, but he also suggested that all five political parties elected to the Saeima be included the coalition.

Bērziņš made the invitation on Oct. 19 after meeting with representatives of all parties, according to an announcement from the president’s press office.

The president’s invitation follows weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the parties. The Zatlers Reform Party (Zatlera Reformu partija, or ZRP), Unity (Vienotība) and the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”) announced Oct. 14 that they had come to terms on a three-party coalition that would be backed by 56 of the parliament’s 100 members. But two days later six ZRP MPs broke away from the party, throwing the solidity of the coalition in doubt.

Efforts to include the other two parties have run into objections. When the reformist ZRP at first tried to create a government with just the center-left Harmony Centre (Saskaņas Centrs), many voters protested that Harmony Centre’s pro-Russian stance cast doubt on its loyalty to Latvia. Efforts at broadening the coalition to include the centrist Unity and the right-wing National Alliance ran into trouble, too. The National Alliance has said it would not work with Harmony Centre. Meanwhile, ZRP leader and ex-president Valdis Zatlers has said his party would not work with the conservative Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība), which is seen as controlled by Latvia’s oligarchs.

Even a last-minute effort to strengthen the three-party coalition by inviting Jānis Duklavs of the Greens and Farmers to take the minister of agriculture’s portfolio in the new government—which would have earned the backing of his party’s 13 seats in the Saeima—was dropped after ZRP objected.

While Klāvs Olšteins and the other five MPs who split from Zatlers’ party have said they would back the Oct. 14 coalition model, the president has expressed his doubts.

Nontheless, Bērziņš said in his Oct. 19 announcement, the three-party coalition appears to be the only one that realistically could form the new government.

At the same time, the president’s invitation to Dombrovskis does not prevent the parties from working on an improved—and broader—model, according to the press office announcement.

“The first serious test of the would-be coalition’s ability to take action will be the vote on the state budget for 2012,” the president said, “which cannot become an experiment with the state and threaten the state’s international agreements.”

Once a coalition is assembled, Dombrovskis will have to present it to the Saeima for confirmation.

The new Saeima, elected Sept. 17, began work Oct. 17. Zatlers, who campaigned on ridding the parliament of the influence of oligarchs and on reforming government and politics, suffered his first defeat, losing in his bid to become speaker of the Saeima. Unity’s Solvita Āboltiņa, who served as speaker in the previous Saeima, was elected instead.