| Platform 21 | |
| Native Name: | Platforma 21 |
| Native Name Lang: | Latvian |
| Leader: | Raimonds Lazdiņš |
| Abbreviation: | P21 |
| Headquarters: | Riga |
| Membership Year: | 2022 |
| Membership: | 1418[1] |
| Seats1 Title: | Saeima |
| Seats1: | |
| Country: | Latvia |
Platform 21 (Latvian: Platforma 21, P21, also stylized as p21)[2] , previously known as For Each and Every One (Latvian: Katram un katrai, KuK) and Law and Order (Latvian: Likums un kārtība, LuK), is a right-wing populist political party in Latvia.[3] It is positioned on the right-wing[4] on the political spectrum and it is staunchly socially conservative and Eurosceptic.[5] It was founded in January 2021 and is led by Saeima deputy Aldis Gobzems.[6] [7]
After its leader and co-founder Aldis Gobzems left the party[8] in October 2022 after party failed to pass the threshold in 2022 elections. The party gathered on its annual party congress in March 2023, where it was decided to change party's name to Platform 21, and elected Raimonds Lazdiņš as its new leader.[2]
Since being expelled from Who Owns the State? (KPV) in February 2019, Aldis Gobzems had hinted at starting a new party.[9] [10] A preliminary kick-off event for the party was held in Riga on October 10, 2020, with a promise to found the party by November 22 the same year.[11] Due to a national state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and introduced on 9 November, that – among other things – put a temporary ban on gathering the 200 people needed to legally register a political party,[12] [13] the party founding and registration was postponed. In a December 28, 2020 interview with Latvijas Avīze, Gobzems said that he would found the party on January 8, 2021.[14]
The party Law and Order was eventually founded via videolink on 8 January 2021.[6] Among the over 500 co-founders attending the conference call[15] were the four Saeima deputies Aldis Gobzems, Karina Sprūde, Ļubova Švecova, and Jūlija Stepaņenko. Gobzems and Sprūde were elected in the 2018 elections on the list of Who Owns the State?, while Švecova and Stepaņenko were elected on the Harmony list.[16] [17] Aldis Gobzems and Jūlija Stepaņenko were elected co-chairmen of the party.
On 29 January 2021, the Latvian Register of Enterprises postponed their decision on whether to legally register the party or not, due to issues with insufficient information in the application documents. The party was given exactly three months to fix the issues.[18] On 26 February, the Register of Enterprises officially registered the party.[19] Similarly to KPV, KuK was ideologically ambiguous while fielding relentless anti-elite rhetoric that tapped into the anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown movements that had spread across Latvia during the Covid-19 pandemic. In December 2021, Gobzems organized a “Rhododendron tour” of Latvia, culminating in an unlicensed, loosely organized evening demonstration outside Riga Castle, the residence of the President of Latvia.[20]
Party co-chair Jūlija Stepaņenko and board member Ļubova Švecova, both members of parliament, left the party on 30 June 2021, citing Gobzems' style of communication.[7] He had in weeks leading up to the breakaway been criticized for encouraging people not vaccinated against COVID-19 to wear a yellow star, as he claims the government's alleged discrimination against non-vaccinated people is comparable to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany.[21]
On 16 March 2022, the party was renamed to For Each and Every One.[22] With only the pandemic and an anti-elite message to draw on, Gobzems left the country around spring and resettled with his family in Spain. Although he returned to campaign in the summer, his activity had diminished, and his party polled just 3.7% in the Saeima election. Almost immediately, Gobzems quit the party and permanently returned to Spain.
At the party congress on 26 March 2023, the name of the party was changed to Platform 21. It was also decided that the party would become a centrist, modern national party. Raimonds Lazdiņš was elected as the chairman of the party. Party board member Karina Sprūde said that the change can be called "a restart" of the party. The number 21 in the name is said to symbolize the 21st century.[23]