Union of Greens and Farmers

From Free net encyclopedia

Zaļo un Zemnieku Savienība (abbreviated ZZS, English: Union of Greens and Farmers or Union of Greens and Rustics) is a political alliance in Latvia. It consists of two political parties: Latvijas Zemnieku Savienība (the Latvian Farmers' Union) and the Latvijas Zaļā Partija (Green Party of Latvia).

The alliance is based on similar sentimental feelings shared by the voters of the two parties. Latvians are supportive of traditional small farms and perceive them as more environmentally friendly than large-scale farming: Nature is threatened by development, while small farms are threatened by large industrial-scale farms. This perception has resulted in an alliance between green and farmer's parties, which is very rare in other countries.

The alliance was established before the 2002 parliamentary election. It ran on an ideologically amorphous agenda and won 12 out of 100 seats in the parliament. In March 2004, Indulis Emsis from the Green Party became the Prime Minister of Latvia.

On a European scale, the Green Party is cooperating with the European Federation of Green Parties/European Free Alliance and the Farmer's Union is cooperating with the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. Before the European Parliament election, 2004, ZZS announced that, if its representative was elected, he would join one of the two groups, depending on which of the two Latvian parties he belonged to. ZZS failed to gather the 5% of votes necessary to gain a seat in European Parliament and thus no ZZS member was elected.

There is criminal procedure against leader of party Ingrida Udre started by KNAB (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs, English: CPCB, Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau). This criminal procedure started due to close relationship with russian oligarch and opponent of President of Russian Federation V.V.Putin Boris Berezovsky. Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky was in Riga along with Neil Bush, the brother of the U.S. president, to discuss an educational project with Latvian businessmen. During the visit, Berezovsky met with Parliamentary Chairman Ingrida Udre, former prime minister Andris Skele, businessman Peteris Smidre and others.

http://www.apollo.lv/portal/news/72/articles/72296

Inese Voika, from the pro-transparency NGO Delna: “Politicians have been giving and taking at the same time. It’s obvious that they’ve been afraid of a strong anti-corruption bureau,” As an example, she mentioned the government’s decision to entrust KNAB to monitor the funding of political parties, and at the same time Parliament’s unwillingness to punish lawmakers in accordance with the party-financing law. “This attitude reached a climax on Nov. 20, 2003, when Parliament decided against making MP Ingrida Udre administratively liable for failing to meet KNAB requirements by the set deadline, as her party [the Greens and Farmers Union] had not repaid the money received in illegal donations,” the study says.

http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/14825/

The latest party to raise a dubious banner is the Greens and Farmers Union. This week one of the party’s leaders, Indulis Emsis, and financial backer, Ventspils chief Aivars Lembergs, suggested that there was an anti-democratic conspiracy at work in Latvia and at its core was currency speculator/philanthropist George Soros, whose foundation provides education grants and finances a range of NGOs.

“The Soros Foundation’s goal to attack coincides with the state’s unfavorable goals – that is to discredit the state and its official structures,” he said on Oct. 30. He added that, as chairman on Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, it would be his personal mission to identify the web of Soros-backed agents working in the Baltic state and extirpate them. Much in the same spirit, Lembergs referred to Latvia as “a subsidiary of Soros.”

http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/13966/fr:Union des verts et des paysans