Language wars build momentum

Apr 13, 2011
From wire reports

RIGA - History shows that everything is possible in Latvia, even conducting two referendums in one day, the Central Election Commission (CEC) Chief Arnis Cimdars said in an interview on the LNT morning program ‘900 sekundes’ on April 11, reports news agency LETA. 10,192 residents have signed the All for Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK petition demanding that the Constitution’s Article 112 be amended. The number of signatures is enough to organize a 30-day nationwide signature drive, so the bill can then be submitted to Saeima. If the bill is turned down, a referendum will have to be organized.
In March, Pro-Russian organizations ‘United Latvia’ and ‘Native Language’ began their campaign. Both organizations plan to collect 10,000 signatures by May 9 (a deliberately provocative date), demanding that the Constitution articles 4, 18, 21, 101 and 104 be amended so that Russian would become the second official language in Latvia. So far more than 6,000 signatures have been gathered.

Language wars build momentum