Editing History of Latvia (section)

===Politics===
The [[Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party|Social Democratic Workers' Party]], as the largest party, held the position of the [[Speaker of the Saeima]] in all the interwar Saeimas. The [[1st Saeima]] was chaired by [[Frīdrihs Veismanis]], the Second, Third and Fourth Saeimas were chaired by [[Pauls Kalniņš]]. The refusal of the Social Democrats to participate in governments (except twice in short-lived cabinets) meant that government was usually led by the center-right Farmers' Union, or by a coalition of smaller parties, as the Saeima seats were divided among many parties, each with just a few MPs.

The Social Democrats were split between the main Social Democratic Workers' Party led by Pauls Kalniņš, [[Ansis Rudevics]] and [[Fricis Menders]] (which first won 30 seats but had a tendency to lose votes in subsequent elections) and the splinter [[Union of Social Democrats – Mensheviks and Rural Workers|Social Democrat Minority Party]] led by [[Marģers Skujenieks]], who were more centrist and managed even to lead governments on two occasions. The mainstream Social Democrat party maintained a strong policy of [[Labour and Socialist International|Socialist International]] ideals and criticized the existing [[capitalist]] system. The Party avoided using the State flag and singing the National anthem, instead using the [[Red flag (politics)|Red flag]] and singing the [[The Internationale|"Internationale"]] in their meetings. Their popularity increasingly fell, and in the [[4th Saeima]] they had only 21 seats.

Officially banned, the [[Communist Party of Latvia]] in the [[1928 Latvian parliamentary election|1928 elections]] managed to get 5 seats standing as the Left Trade Union (which was banned in 1930). In the [[1931 Latvian parliamentary election|1931 elections]] Communists won 6 seats as the Trade Union Workers and Peasants Group, but were once again banned in 1933.

The [[Latvian Farmers' Union]], comprising the second-largest parliamentary faction with 14 to 17 MPs, was the largest of the conservative parties. It increasingly had to compete with some smaller farmer, catholic-farmer and [[Latgale]]-farmer parties which won more votes in each election. The Farmer's Union was led by [[Kārlis Ulmanis]], [[Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics]] and [[Hugo Celmiņš]]. The decreasing popularity of Ulmanis and of the Farmers' Union may have been one of the reasons behind the May 15, [[1934 Latvian coup d'état]], as Ulmanis tried to prevent further loss of his political influence and power in the elections scheduled for October 1934.

The Democratic Centre Party, led by [[Gustavs Zemgals]] represented mostly urban, middle-class office-workers and state employees.

The [[National Union (Latvia)|National Union]], led by [[Arveds Bergs]], was nationalistic, anti-Soviet, center-right party that attracted urban followers. The extreme nationalists were represented by the [[antisemitic]] [[Pērkonkrusts]] (founded in 1933), led by [[Gustavs Celmiņš]].

Most of the remaining small parties were either ethnic – German, Jewish, or Polish – or represented single-issue economic groups – small-holders, house owners, even railroad workers. The small parties usually formed larger coalitions (blocks) and then used their influence to join governing coalition. One of the most influential was coalition of Latgale parties.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uzdevumi.lv/p/vesture/12-klase/lr-parlamentara-posma-6157/re-cc837c4c-1c76-45e8-8d6e-ab1f98eaca77 |title=Politiskās partijas |access-date=April 23, 2016 |archive-date=March 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305133126/https://www.uzdevumi.lv/p/vesture/12-klase/lr-parlamentara-posma-6157/re-cc837c4c-1c76-45e8-8d6e-ab1f98eaca77 |url-status=live }}</ref>