The Union of Greens and Farmers (UGF) has not changed its position on Latvia's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention and will support its denunciation at the Saeima meeting on Thursday.
On Thursday, the parliament will consider the bill on withdrawal from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in its first reading. As reported to LETA by the leader of the UGF faction in the Saeima, Harijs Rokpelņš, the faction's deputies will support the bill.
As reported, the Saeima Foreign Affairs Committee conceptually supported the proposal for Latvia's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on Wednesday, forwarding it for consideration at the parliamentary meeting.
Four deputies from opposition parties voted "for" in all votes at the committee meeting - on supporting the bill in the first reading, the urgency status, and consideration at the Saeima meeting on Thursday - while deputies from the coalition parties Edmunds Cepurītis ("Progressives"), Irma Kalniņa ("New Unity"), and Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica ("New Unity") voted "against." UGF deputy Jānis Vucāns did not participate in the votes.
At the end of September, the Saeima forwarded the opposition's proposal for the denunciation of the convention to the Foreign Affairs Committee for consideration. Together with the opposition, deputies from the coalition UGF also voted for this proposal, which led to instability in the ruling coalition, as the other partners viewed this as a violation of the coalition agreement.
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