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“Although it is not an easy task to guess the legal beliefs and views of the people and to put them down in the form of legal provisions contained in the supreme law, the founding fathers of our Constitution managed to do that successfully. However, the drafters of the Constitution failed to agree upon an expanded and more detailed introduction – or the preamble as we now call it – to this law.” This was pointed out by Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, at the opening of the conference on Reflection of the Foundation of the Latvian State in the Expanded Preamble of the Constitution – Concept and Tentative Content held on 25 October in the University of Latvia.

Solvita Āboltiņa expressed the surprise that the ideas, understanding and even wording under consideration today are very similar to what the authors of the Constitution had in their minds, and that in discussions on the expanded preamble of our supreme law, we see that even back then members of the Constitutional Assembly managed to clearly outline these self-evident elements of the state.

Currently a large part of the Latvian people do not clearly understand the foundation of our state, and sometimes we are even indecisive and confused in defining our attitude towards our state; this is why, when highlighting the importance of the conference on a draft preamble to the Constitution, Speaker Āboltiņa noted that this high-quality and well-considered discussion within society and among experts, followed by a decisive act of the legislature, would be the greatest gift we could present to our state on its centenary.

“I am convinced that today the legislature will be so farsighted, smart and wise as – amid the deafening background noise of reproaches about the way the preamble is being drafted and even about claims that it is changing Latvia’s goals – not to lose its idea and intention to precisely define in the wording of the Constitution the goal and essence of Latvia and to strengthen the values laid in the foundation of our state,” stressed the Speaker of the Saeima.

“I truly believe that the founders of our state were certain that the Latvian language must be the core element of our state which should be protected, that the state has to ensure the development and nurturing of the Latvian culture, and that the existence of the Latvian nation throughout the centuries, as set forth in the draft preamble, was the goal of founding the state of Latvia in the first place. The idea that was laid in the foundation of our state and that envisaged mutual respect between the ethnic Latvian majority and the minorities coexisting within a single political framework is another self-evident notion,” said Āboltiņa.

In conclusion, the Speaker emphasised that today the legislature has a chance to strengthen the foundation of our state, as well as to facilitate a stronger and healthier future of our state by recalling the lessons of the past and the turning points in our destiny. “We can take this opportunity to express profound gratitude to the founders of our state and freedom fighters. We can live our lives by showing mutual respect and jointly facilitating the development of our state. We can ensure the ability of our children to carry with confidence into the future the fundamental values of Latvia founded in 1918,” stated Solvita Āboltiņa.

The conference on a draft preamble to the Constitution is organised by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Saeima in cooperation with the University of Latvia. Informative support is provided by the weekly law magazine Jurista Vārds.



Saeima Press Service