today is a sad day for my country. yesterday, after 13 hours of heated debate, the parliament of Latvia voted whether or not to denounce the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. and we were outvoted. several weeks of fighting on the internet, bloody statistics against fabricated insults, the largest protest in 35 years which gathered 5000 people in the streets around parliament (and i guess the counterprotest, which supported denouncing the convention, and gathered around 20 people), dozens of NGOs, crisis centres, medical associations, professional unions calling for the convention (which we ratified, after similar drama, in 2023) to remain ratified, even a letter from international diplomats could not sway the minds of politicians who decided to show the rest of the country and the world what they can do to us.
their arguments against the convention were completely detached from its contents. they talked about “gender ideology” and tried to stage an “ideological war” which does not exist. they talked about separate Olympics for trans people. they talked about “unborn life”. and “traditional values”, of course.
for context, Latvia has two progressive parties, which are currently in the coalition. unfortunately, they didn’t have enough seats to form the coalition on their own, so they had to choose a lesser evil to work with. and there are quite a few parties to choose from, some outright puppets of Putin, some sleazy oligarchs who got rich scheming in the 90’s when Latvia had just regained its freedom, some using the cover of religion to propose oppression. after several failed attempts they joined with the Greens and Farmers Union, which only care for forests so far as they can be cut down for money (money we don’t see, by the way - 15% of Latvia’s forests were purchased by IKEA two weeks ago - guess how that’ll go for the preservation of wilderness) and care for the land only as far as it’s owners can be undertaxed.
and these capitalists turned coats this month, making a united front with the idiots on the other side over the stupidest issue imaginable - the Istanbul Convention. the reality of violence against women in Latvia is chilling - over 60% of femicides occur at home, at the hands of their partners or their past partners; 1 in 4 women have experienced domestic violence; and traditional values? the most common form of family in Latvia is a single mother with kids. they DON’T know what they’re talking about, and they don’t want to know. they are fuelled by selfishness at best and russian propaganda at worst.
so i don’t know. the parliament elections are in a year, and it likely won’t get better. it’s likely they’ll bring up abortion, migration, freedom of press, western values and anything else they can regurgitate from Putin or Trump that they can use to further their own careers. they want us to fight, and they want the undecided to distrust everything. while russia is paying people to write stupid comments on social media and throw molotov cocktails into our museums. i’m afraid of how far they’ll take it - currently our whole nation is united in our unwavering support of Ukraine. we’re solid in our belief that NATO will protect us if russia decides to try to destroy us. we understand that demilitarisation would only make it easier for them to do that.
i’m very patriotic and i’ve been very proud of our progressive government in a europe that’s slowly sinking into fascism. today, i have nothing good to say.
i was born when Latvia was 5 years old. freed from the prison of the Soviet occupation, fresh and chaotic and trying to organise into a European nation. i grew up among those flowers, growing in the ruins of a wannabe empire. and i had the privilege of feeling free and safe. now that i’m an adult and i can see the context of two centuries, our small singing nation thrown between powers without ever being listened to, i understand that we’ve had to fight for our agency again and again (even in europe today - just think of what comes to your mind when you hear “eastern european”, then think about where those associations have come from.) and my sense of satisfied safety was possible only in this short moment in history.
last night i fell asleep with the realisation i will never get to stop fighting for my country.
