Main narratives:
- The government is corrupt and wasteful;
- The government does not care about people.
Overview:
Last week, a survey was published showing that a previously fringe party, Union Sovereign Power and the Union of New Latvians, is likely to pass the 5% threshold and might get elected to the Riga city council in the June elections. Over the last week, videos on TikTok and Facebook from leaders of the Union of New Latvians, Glorija Grevcova and Rūdolfs Brēmanis, received far more engagements compared to posts from other well-known populists – Stability’s Roslikovs and Latvia First Ainars Slesers.
The most popular posts of last week were farming outrage. Grevcova’s and Brēmanis’ messaging revolved around portraying Latvia’s government as both wasteful and negligent during what they characterized as an “economic crisis.” Their posts repeatedly target military spending, highlighting specific examples such as 900,000 euros being spent on ceremonial swords and 800,000 euros for belts and bags used by the Latvian Armed Forces. Both stories were real, also covered in the mainstream media, but both populist politicians baked them in emotional outrage, tying them together with hints that the government is corrupt, wasteful, and does not care about the people. While these posts were exaggerated and emotionally charged, they were based on reality. The other most popular of their posts was not.
Grevcova painted a disturbing picture about the emotionally charged topic, “kids are raising kids.” She claimed that after an underage mother gave birth to her child, no one in responsible institutions cared about who the father was and how this happened. She claimed that the mother gave the kid to a pedophile – the father, who is allegedly above 18. Lastly, she claimed that the “heads will roll” because she will be working on this. All of this story was very vague and completely unverifiable. Perhaps she was referring to a news story or social media post, but it was unclear from her TikTok video.
Brēmanis, who some years ago was peddling Covid-19 pandemic conspiracies, portrayed himself as a defender of local business – “Straupe’s Milk.” This Latvian company was temporarily shut down due to E. coli contamination. Brēmanis invoked Covid-19 like conspiracies by claiming this is an unjustified “attack and reiderism” of Latvian businesses over “mythical bacteria.”
Outrage content goes viral on TikTok because it triggers powerful emotional responses that drive engagement. When users encounter content showing perceived injustices, moral violations, or controversial statements, they experience immediate emotional arousal—anger, indignation, or shock—prompting them to comment, share, and engage longer with the content. TikTok’s algorithm rewards this heightened engagement by promoting these videos further.
Additionally, outrage creates a sense of moral identity and community bonding among users who unite against a common enemy or injustice. The platform’s short-form format is perfect for delivering emotional punches without nuance, while its easy sharing mechanics allow outrage to spread rapidly, creating viral moments as users feel compelled to participate in collective expressions of moral indignation.
