Twenty Years
of European Greens
1984 - 2004
edited by Arnold Cassola & Per Gahrton
Valdis Felsbergs
Green Party of Latvia
- EFGP
delegate in The Hague 2001
The western green movement developed in very different conditions from those of the Green Party of Latvia (and other Eastern greens). The former embodied the opposition of a self-sufficient society against its own self-sufficiency, which led to depletion of the global, natural, public and moral resources, while the latter was, first of all, an opposition against a foreign power which was enforcing the same depletion of the global, natural, public and moral resources. The former was a call from within the community to look around, while the latter was a call to the outside world to look at us and our problems. The former was aimed at the restriction of human authority in favour of the respect of the natural rules, while the latter was aimed at the extension of the local human authority in order to provide for the restriction of the foreign authorities, that had neglected the natural rules. This is why the western greens have been more or less left-wing politicians as from their origins, while the eastern greens started as a nationalistic and conservative movement, struggling for national independence as a necessary precondition for the democratic implementation of green ideas. This can be more or less understood if we compare with the current global struggle of the greens against globalisation, which has a range of similar consequences as the communist economy and way of politics had had on the former eastern states.
This historical difference meant that a range of the western green ideas were only applicable in a free society since they were quite opposite to those of the eastern greens – not in terms of the overall goal, but of the ways to reach it. “Think globally, act locally” is the motto. Thus, local differences required far different approaches in order for one to “act locally”.
In the second half of the 1990s, after completion of the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Eastern Europe, nationalist ideas receded from the eastern green agenda. This was the time to look west.
I was elected the co-chairman of the Green Party in 1997, and the lack of close links with the western partners was one of the first topics I paid attention to. The Latvian Greens started negotiations with the European Federation of Green Parties and started participating in its events as an observer in 1998. This was the time when the struggle for national independence was not any more on the agenda of the Latvian Greens, and our goals grew closer and closer to those of the European greens.
The year 1998 was not successful for us: we lost our seats in the Parliament. In such a depressing situation we worked hard using the political instruments that were more typical of green NGOs. And we postponed our membership application to the EFGP, staying all the time in close touch, but going on to make the decisive step only after obtaining a success proving our viability. This step was the municipal elections in the spring of 2001, when we got 2 seats out of 60 in the Riga City Council and a range of deputies in smaller municipalities. In such a cheerful mood we applied for entry to the EFGP and were admitted on 9th June 2001. In August 2001 we successfully hosted the annual meeting of the Baltic Network… This was a new stage of international partnership for the Latvian greens. Since then our green things are getting better and better, and in autumn 2002 we restored our representation in the Parliament and in the Government.
As for me, I was one of the main moving forces during the three years to overcome our “green depression”, and pushing for the will to become a decent partner of the international green community was one of the incentives that kept us going. Both aforementioned international events were my last assignments in the post of Head of Office of the Latvian Green Party, and they actually were the cherry on the cake that concluded the period of my administration.
