Alliance of Young Latvians
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Alliance of Young Latvians Apvienība Jaunlatvieši | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | AJ |
| Leader | |
| Founded | 11 February 2023 |
| Headquarters | Riga |
| Membership (2023) | 530[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Colours | |
| Saeima | 0 / 100 |
| Riga City Council | 2 / 60 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Alliance of Young Latvians (Latvian: Apvienība Jaunlatvieši, AJ) is a Latvian political party founded on February 11, 2023.[2] The party board includes former members of For Each and Every One (now Platform 21) Rūdolfs Brēmanis, Edgars Dārznieks and Artūrs Klēbahs. The party claims to stand for Latvian protectionism, a popularly elected president and reduction of bureaucracy and states that Latvia "must be independent from the East or the West".[3] The party had one member of the Saeima, former member of For Stability! Glorija Grevcova.
Brēmanis, a former charge- d'affaires at the Latvian embassy in the United Arab Emirates, is the main suspect in case about a possible embezzlement scheme involving the service apartments of the foreign service. Public Broadcasting of Latvia also reported that Brēmanis might have engaged in the residency permits-for-investment business while still being in the diplomatic service.[4]
In the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, the party fielded the Russophone homemaker Olga Čerņavska (Russian: Ольга Чернявская),[5][6] who previously had not been active in politics. In the campaigning period, Latvia's State Security Service investigated her statements that were considered to be anti-Latvian and pro-Russian.[7] In mid-June 2024, she defected to Belarus, claiming 'electoral falsification' and 'death threats.'[8] The propaganda of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko has used her to publish content that attacks Latvian government and other institutions by using pro-Russian narratives (which is similar to the case of the Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt who defected to Belarus in May 2024).[9][10][11]
In Belarus, Čerņavska joined former COVID-19 misinformation activist Romāns Samuļs (Latvian: Роман Самуль).[12][13] He had defected from Latvia to Belarus in 2022,[14] after having failed to win a mandate to the Latvian Parliament.[15] In Belarus, Samul acts as a leader of a group of disillusioned Russophones from Latvia for the sake of anti-Latvian propaganda.[16][17]
For the 2025 municipal elections, AJ formed a coalition with Sovereign Power with other parties including the Latvian Russian Union also being represented.[18]
