Main narratives:
- Claims that non-Latvian speaking residents do not pose a national security threat, amid harsh deportation policies.
- Comparisons of EU governance to the USSR, casting doubt on Latvia’s autonomy and freedom.
- Concerns over EU-driven pension reforms affecting Latvian citizens’ retirement plans.
- Criticism of the RailBaltic project as indicative of government mismanagement and budgetary inefficiency.
- Controversy surrounding Latvia’s funding of UNRWA, with allegations of indirectly supporting Hamas.
Overview:
During the examined week the common narratives concerned policies in relation to Russian citizens residing in Latvia and the European Union. Similar to prior weeks there is a disinformation narrative that aims to portray the mistreatment of the Russian population in Latvia- during this week the claim was that the current language policies are equivalent to deportation. The narrative also common in prior weeks is the creation of a negative view of the European Union which has been compared to the USSR making claims that Latvia has never been a free country. In addition, disinformation actors who themselves are candidates for the European Parliament elections are spreading disinformation regarding policies implemented by the EU- for example, increasing of the pension age which in fact is not a competency of the EU. In terms of content, TikTok remains the platform that can garner the most significant engagement, similarly in prior weeks the engagement remains considerably low on Facebook and very low on Twitter.
