Several dozen people brought boxes with "Stop 21%" (the new VAT rate) written on them. One box bore a mourning wreath with a ribbon reading in Russian "to the Latvian government from its thankful people."
Latvia is experiencing the greatest economic recession in the EU. The country's GDP fell by 10.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, and many enterprises have gone bankrupt.
In December, the government developed and parliament approved a stabilization program increasing VAT from 18% to 21%. The expenditures of state institutions were also cut by 15%.
Protesters during at times violent demonstrations in Riga in January called on the government to resign, and on February 20 President Valdis Zatlers accepted the resignation of then-prime minister Ivars Godmanis and told opposition party representative Valdis Dombrovskis to form a new cabinet.
The population of Daugavpils is 100,000, the majority of whom are ethnic Russians.
