The Latvian Saeima State Administration and Self-Government Commission has drafted an “election campaign” that should ban the use of Russian in the election campaign, Delfi reported. According to the agency, we’re only talking about imposing restrictions on paid political ads so far, meaning politicians will be able to continue communicating with voters in Russian at campaign meetings.
As noted, the bill assumes that the new rules will affect political advertising in the media, indoor and outdoor, in books and in newsletters. In accordance with the changes, all campaign materials must be distributed only in Latvian and Latvian languages - this rule also applies to advertisements on the Web.
At the same time, changes are allowed in the inclusion of the official languages of the European Union in the election campaign during elections at EU level. However, according to the draft law, materials in the languages of the association must be provided together with texts in the Latvian state language.
Edgars Rinkevics, previously elected President of Latvia He insisted “Latvization” of the country instead of Russification.