Neither cold weather nor orders from the Riga municipality to disperse have broken up the encampment, now a month and a half old. Photo by James Dahl.

RIGA — Riga city authorities have ordered some of the tent protesters in front of the Cabinet of Ministers building to leave, but Monday the demonstration continued as before, with protesters hobnobbing with supporters and an array of signs fastened to the ground.

The city’s executive committee charged several protesters with violations and slapped a symbolic fine of 1 lat (€1.40), ordering them to remove their tents from the parkway, according to reports. Two protesters reportedly agreed to leave, while three other protocols turned out to be worthless since they contained no specific name.

BNS reported that Gints Gaikens, leader of the protest, which began on Nov. 30, failed to show up at the administrative hearing and that the charges against him will be considered again in one month.

Protesters are demanding that the government provide better compensation for the unemployed and develop a plan to create jobs. Latvia has the highest level of unemployment in the European Union at 22.3 percent, according to the latest data from Eurostat, and the encampment has caught the attention of the country.

Many Rigans seem inured to the sight of the tent protesters downtown, particularly now that the commune is covered in snow and looks less of an eyesore.

Meanwhile, Latvia’s ombudsdman, Romans Apsitis, did not say whether the city’s decision to disperse the protesters was legal.

“It is hard for me to tell whether this amounts to a direct violation of human rights,” he said.

“This is a disputable issue. We have not come across such issues so often, although such cases appear from time to time, but so far we have settled them peacefully,” Apsitis said, adding that the protest looked “shabby.”

Repeat of last year’s riot?

As the tent protesters endure frigid winter temperatures despite city hall’s order, the political advocacy group Antiglobālisti received permission from the municipality to hold a protest against the takeover of Parex Bank Jan. 13 on Citadeles Street in downtown Riga.

The date marks the one-year anniversary of the violent riots that left cars torched and windows smashed in the Latvian capital’s historical center, but no large protests are planned. Nevertheless, police are planning to be out in force that night in case the Parex Bank protest.

— Baltic Reports editor Nathan Greenhalgh contributed to this article.