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Latvia

September 16th - September 22nd, 2024 | Week 55 | Month 13

Latvia Weekly: Bureaucracy, Language Policy, and COVID-19 Spark Debate

Domestic issues dominated the narrative, focusing on bureaucracy, corruption, mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for children, and the use of the Russian language in public spaces. Opposition parties criticized the parliamentary decision to exclude the Russian language from ATMs, labeling it as Russophobic and inconvenient for Ukrainian refugees.

by Otto Tabuns
ATM
Main channels: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok

8

Main narratives:

  • Glorifying Soviet Past
  • Blames of alleged russophobia
  • The incompetence of the current government
  • Creating the divisions between politicians and “ordinary” citizens
  • General anti-government sentiments

Overview:

The narratives focused on domestic issues, specifically the burden of bureaucracy and corruption, mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for children, and the use of the Russian language in the public sphere.

The parliamentary decision to exclude the Russian language from ATMs was widely discussed by opposition parties on social media, with claims that such measures are Russophobic and create inconvenience for Ukrainian refugees. In terms of engagement, topics like COVID-19 gained significantly more attention on TikTok compared to other platforms. While TikTok remains the platform with the highest engagement, there has been increasing activity on Twitter as well.

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