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The capital of Latvia is Riga, its area measures 64,589 square kilometres, the population is made up of 2,331,000 inhabitants, the gross domestic product is 8.7 billion Euros. The inflation is 6.8%, its unemployment rate is 9.9%, the deficit is –2%, and its National debt is 14.6%. After the Sovietic occupation from 1940 to 1991, Latvia regained its indipendence, proclaiming its autonomy from Soviet Union in 1991. Latvia is presently organized like a Parliamentary Republic with a mono-cameral Parliament, including 100 members in office for 4 years, elected by universal suffrage with a proportional system and a blocking clause fixed at 5% of votes. The President of Republic is elected, by the Parliament itself, every 3 years.The last national elections took place in October 2002 and they saw the victory of a centre-rightist coalition, leaded by the “New era” Party, with a conservative inspiration. Its leader, Repse, became Prime Minister. Anyway, after almost two years of difficult cohabitation within the majority coalition, Repse resigned in February 2004. Mrs. Vike-Freiberga, one of the few women in Europe exerting the office of President of Republic, decided not to solve the Parliament again, and she asked the leader of the “Green and farmers Party”, Indulis Emsis, to form the new Government. He composed it, with the support of a centre minority coalition, including the Green Party, the Populars and the Christian Democratics. The new Government had to resign as well, due to the lack of financial approval by the Parliament. The new Premier, Igars Kalvitis (Popular Party) has been in office since 2004. The Government coalition enlarged thanks to the “New era” Party return, yet the “Alliance for the fatherland’s freedom and indipendence”, a nationalist Party, against the integration of the Russian minority in Latvia, has been left outside. Latvia has been a member of the European Union since 1st May 2004; the adhesion referendum took place in September 2003, the 67% of people voted “Yes”. The affluence was quite high (72%). In order to call the referendum, they had to change the Latvian constitution, for it didn’t provide for the possibility of calling popular elections to ratify international treaties. Latvia owns, within the new European Parliament, 9 seats. The elections took place on Saturday the 12th June 2004 and the vote awarded the nationalist opposition “Alliance for the fatherland’s freedom and indipendence”,, that gained a good 4 out of the 9 seats. The 4 nationalist deputies will be sitting among the “Nations European Union”. The “New Era” conservatories gained 2 seats, confirming the trust from the citizens. The Latvian member within the European Commission is è Andris Piebalgs, responsible for the energy sector.
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