The event[]
The Latvian language vote of 18/2/2012 resulted in a 74.80% majority against making Russian an official language. The present state language is Latvian. There are other linguistic minorities, such as Polish and Ukrainian speakers.
The result[]
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| No | 821,722 | 74.80 |
| Yes | 273,347 | 24.88 |
| Invalid or blank votes | 3,524 | 0.32 |
| Total votes | 1,098,593 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters and turnout | 1,545,004 | 71.11 |
Only the eastern region of Latgale saw a majority of citizens voting for the change. 71.1% of registered voters casting ballots.
Alleged racism and controversy[]
On the day after the referendum Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia announced that "the outcome of the referendum is far from reflecting the true mood in Latvia". They said that 319,000 non-citizens that could not participate in the referendum, including 290,660 members of the Russian community. That said, if they could have voted, it would have not change the overall outcome of the vote, but would have made it more apparent the Latgale region needed to be bilingual in Latvian and Russian by law.
A many Latvian ex-pats have been welcomed back. Sadly those of mixed ethnicity with Byelorussia and Russians are almost as hated as the Byelorussia and Russians.
Also see[]
- Latvia's Law on State Languages.
- Russians living in Latvia
- The Jewish Holocaust and Roma Porajmos in the Baltic states
- 1940 Russian occupation and annexation of the Baltic states
- 1941 - 1944 German occupation of the Baltic states
- Under Soviet rule(1944 - 1991)
- Latvian SSR of 1919-1920
- Baltic Way
- Baltics are Waking Up
- Singing Revolution
- The history of Latvia's Jews
- UK media bias 2001-2014