Political Support
A major cleavage in Latvian politics is between ethnic Latvians, from whom TB/LNNK receives almost all of its votes, and ethnic Russians. In the 1998 election, ethnic Latvians were fifteen times as likely to vote for the party as ethnic Russians. The 1998 referendum on citizenship sponsored by TB/LNNK was supported by a majority of Latvians, but defeated overall by ethnic Russians.
The party is supported mostly by the middle classes, with wealthier voters tending to vote either for TB/LNNK or Latvian Way. Before the parties merged in 1997, both TB and the LNNK received the most support from university graduates.
Riga has traditionally been by far the party's strongest area, with 40% of its voters in 1995 coming from the capital city. However, Riga's politics are shifting from a ethno-linguistic cleavage to a socio-economic one, leading to a softening of this disparity in the 2001 local elections.
Unlike most parties in Latvia, TB/LNNK has never based its support on having a particularly popular leader.
Read more about this topic: For Fatherland And Freedom/LNNK
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