Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 16 / Trend , E.Ostapenko/ All forces must co-operate for stabilization of situation in Latvia, said Sandra Kalniete, former Foreign Minister of Latvia.
"Opposition and position have to work together," Kalniete told Trend via e-mail.
A peaceful protest in the capital turned into riots in front of the parliament on Tuesday night. The demonstrations were organized by opposition political parties, trade unions and non-governmental organizations. More than 1,000 people gathered in the city center, urgining the president to hold a referendum and dissolve the parliament.
Similar protests in 2007 resulted in the prime minister's resignation.
The current riots have been caused by public dissatisfaction with policies addressing the economic crisis.
After this all opposition parties have decided to work together in the parliament and offer their view on economic stabilization, Kalniete said, who is leader of Civic Union party that is represented in Latvian and European Parliaments.
"If there is a new government, we are ready to offer our best candidates for work in the government," she said.
"At first we have to stabilize our economy because people are afraid of losing jobs. We have to think how to protect people from banks if they have lost their job," Kalniete said.
Latvia is experiencing the strongest economic downturn in the EU. The government has composed a plan to stabilize the economy by reducing governmental expenditures by 15 percent, freezing wages and raising taxes. The International Monetary Fund has granted 7.5-billion-euro loan to Latvia, which is more than the country's annual GDP.
Another unpopular government policy was raising the value added tax (VAT). This boosted food prices.
As a result of protest actions, the President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers stated that if until March 31 the Parliament of Latvia does not make changes to the Constitution, which envisage the right of people to initiate the dismissal of parliament, then he will declare a referendum on dismissal of the Parliament, Interfax reported.
"Now situation in society is stable because they know - if government and parliament don't do what people ask, President will dismiss parliament. Right now we just have to wait and see what happens," she said.
If they do that, people will have possibility to dismiss parliament and election system will be better, Kalniete said.
Some 2.3 million people live in Latvia, of whom more than 365,000 do not have Latvian citizenship. Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, they were deprived of the majority of the political rights, including of the right to elect. "Non-citizens" are those, who moved to Latvia from other republics of the Soviet Union in the period from 1940 to 1989.
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