A handful of protesters dressed in military fatigues and touting fake machine guns rolled a replica of a tank into a central Riga square today to protest at the Baltic country's plans to join the European Union and NATO.
"NATO + EU = poverty and war" read a slogan etched on the lifesized wooden tank deployed by the small Social Democratic Welfare party, which is campaigning ahead of a general election in October.
"America is involving us in wars in Afghanistan... We'll get Islamic terrorism in response," party candidate Mr Normunds Grostins said as he handed out leaflets and answered inquiries from passers-by. "We're for the Swiss model."
Several parties sceptical of Latvia's NATO and European Union membership bids are currently flexing their muscles in the run-up to the October 5 election and polls have shown significant proportions of the population having doubts about joining both organisations.
But analysts predicted the election would again result in a government which solidly backs joining the EU and NATO.
AFP