The Failure of the 'Revolution' in Politics. Five Reasons 0 10

It has already become a tradition, a hallmark of Latvian politics - for every election to the Saeima, that is, once every four years, there appears ONE NEW PROTEST PARTY. The current elections are no exception. Two months ago, the well-known director Alvis Hermanis announced the creation of a new public movement "Without Parties" together with a group of like-minded individuals. The goal of the movement is to carry out a sort of revolution in Latvia's electoral system: in fact, in the long term, to almost eliminate parties and elect deputies exclusively from single-member districts.

Now we already know that the new political movement essentially died long before the parliamentary elections - Hermanis stated that he was disappointed... in the Latvian people, who for some reason did not rush to carry the new "saviors of the Fatherland" on their shoulders, and the group of political consultants turned out to be... "embedded agents" - they are the same people from "New Unity," if we are to believe Hermanis.

In any case, it seems that the mission has failed and the movement "Without Parties" can be forgotten in the context of the upcoming elections.

What are the main reasons for this failure?

First. Hermanis and Co. did not get off to a good start - they failed to create a new political force in time, that is, at least a year before the elections. And this is a mandatory legal requirement for participation in the upcoming elections. This meant that the creators of "Without Parties" had to look for an already existing party to participate in the elections, meaning that Hermanis and his associates were initially dependent on third parties.

Second. The chosen party "Platform 21" is known only to political scientists and journalists with good memories. This means the party would have to be promoted from scratch - and this with 10 months to go before the elections and considering the extremely unclear name!

Third. The group that gathered around Hermanis consisted, to put it mildly, of not very well-known figures, and pulling a party up from scratch solely based on Hermanis was initially an almost impossible mission.

Fourth. It is impossible to expect success if a party or movement is built around a single idea, especially a political one, without an economic program.

Fifth. A fatal mistake of Hermanis's entourage was that these consultants naively hoped that... they would manage the director. In other words, that Hermanis would only be a figurehead. Directors are usually completely unmanageable; they certainly will not allow themselves to be manipulated.

In one way or another, Hermanis has already buried the movement with his statements.