This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Latvian Green Party

Latvijas Zaļā partija, LZP

Last modified: 2023-06-10 by zachary harden
Keywords: green party | latvia |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors



image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 April 2020



See also:


Overview

Latvian Green Party (Latvijas Zaļā partija, LZP) was founded on 13th January 1990. It contested all elections which took place since its founding, usually in coalitions with other parties, most notably with the Latvian Farmers' Union (Latvijas Zemnieku savienība), with which it has jointly contested as part of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība) since 2002. The party participated in the governments of Latvia 1993-1998, 2002-2011 and 2014-2019, its member Indulis Emsis being the world's first Green politician to become a Prime Minister (March-December 2014). The world's first head of state affiliated to a Green Party is also its member: Raimonds Vējonis, President of Latvia 2015-2019. Unlike most Green parties, the LZP is a rightist party, often accused for supporting reactionary, nationalist, and anti-LGBT positions, which led to growing discordance with other members of the European Green Party, in whose founding it had participated, and its eventual expulsion in 2019.

Sources:
[1] Latvian Green Party at Wikipedia (in English): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Green_Party
[2] Latvian Green Party at Wikipedia (in Latvian): https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvijas_Za%C4%BC%C4%81_partija

Tomislav Todorovic, 5 April 2020


Flag

The flag of Latvian Green Party is derived from the national flag by repainting the field into green. While the party Statutes only mention the flag existence without any description [1], the explicit confirmation of its design are the words of the party chairman Edgars Tavars who, when commenting on the expulsion from European Green Party, also said [2]: "Our flag is green-white-green, not rainbow or red." The flag design was originally introduced by the Environmental Protection Club (Vides aizsardzības klubs), which was founded in 1987 [3] and still uses it [4, 5, 6]. Its use by the party can be verified since 2014 [7, 8], although it must have been adopted earlier, perhaps as early as the founding time, for it has been an important political symbol in pre-independence years: on black and white TV screens, it cannot be distinguished from Latvian national flag, which was banned at the time, the ban having been circumvented by use of a similar, yet distinctive flag [3, 9]. While there have never been many photos published, still there have been enough to verify its continuous use in the years after 2014 as well [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15].

Sources:
[1] Latvian Green Party website - Statutes: http://www.zp.lv/lv/par-mums/statuti/
[2] Baltijas Balss website: https://lat.bb.lv/raksts/sabiedriba/2019/11/10/eiropas-zalie-izmet-lzp-tavars-musu-karogs-ir-zal-balt-zals-nevis-varaviksnes
[3] Latvian Public Broadcasting website: https://lr2.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/latvijas-simtgades-stastu-raksti/vides-aizsardzibas-klubs.a100580/
[4] Jauns.lv website - Photos from the Environmental Protection Club seat on 2012-02-28: https://jauns.lv/foto/zinas/19595-vides-aizsardzibas-klubs-svin-25-gadu-jubileju
[5] Latvian Green Party website - News report on 2015-12-19: http://www.zp.lv/lv/raksts/id/vides-aizsardzibas-klubs-zala-atmoda/
[6] Environmental Protection Club at Facebook - Photo gallery: https://www.facebook.com/pg/videsklubs/photos/
[7] Latvian Green Party website - News report on 2014-08-26: http://www.zp.lv/lv/raksts/id/noticis-pikets-pret-rigas-izpardosanu/
[8] Latvian Green Party website - News report on 2014-10-03: http://www.zp.lv/lv/raksts/id/iesniedz-pieteikumu-tiesa-par-lucavsalas-izsoles-atcelsanu/
[9] Latvian National History Museum website - Virtual exhibition about the Environmental Protection Club: http://lnvm.lv/?p=11293
[10] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2016-03-02: https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.415118762031982/466383060238885/?type=3
[11] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2018-04-07: https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.438364063040785/835906309953223/?type=3
[12] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2018-09-02: https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.415118762031982/950074038536449/?type=3
[13] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2018-09-04:
https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.415118762031982/951343511742835/?type=3
[14] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2019-11-05: https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.438364063040785/1244874155723101/?type=3
[15] Latvian Green Party at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2019-11-05: https://www.facebook.com/ZalaPartija/photos/a.438364063040785/1244874159056434/?type=3

 Tomislav Todorovic, 5 April 2020