The student protest was the third mass demonstration in two days against the Latvian government's proposed 2010 budget, which includes numerous austerity measures. Photo used courtesy of Baltic Features.

RIGA — Up to 5,000 students and their supporters congregated outside the Latvian parliament Tuesday to protest education cuts while the 2010 budget debate went on inside.

The large number of protesters made the demonstration the largest since a gathering in January turned into a full-scale riot. However, Tuesday’s protest was largely good-natured and overseen by a heavy police presence with armored vehicles waiting in nearby side streets.

Protesters carried an imaginative mix of banners including “Will the last student to leave the airport turn the lights out?” and “We want to be smarter than the government.”

Education minister Tatjana Koke made a brief appearance on the steps of the parliament building but was met with boos and catcalls and did not address the crowd.

Many students told Baltic Reports it was impossible to live on the money available to them and that the quality of the education they received had already been affected by government spending cuts.

The student protest was the second protest of at the Saeima Tuesday and the third in two days. Earlier in the morning Latvian trade unions also gathered to protest the budget, with several hundred chanting and holding placards. Meanwhile Monday a group of 1,000 bikers rallied outside the parliament building with motorcycles in typical black leather garb to demonstrate against an increase in motorcycle registration fees from three to 24 lats (€4.20 to €33.80).

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