The Latvia's First Party () was a socially conservative, Christian-democratic right-wing political party in Latvia. It merged with Latvian Way to form Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way in 2007. It was founded on 25 May 2002, led by Ēriks Jēkabsons and Ainārs Šlesers. The party included a number of priests from all the major branches of Christianity in Latvia (Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox and Baptist) as well as members of Jaunā Paaudze (New Generation), a controversial charismatic group. As a result, it was informally nicknamed "the party of priests" or the "pastors' party". Using populist promises and support from religious organisations, it won 9.5% of the popular vote and 10 out of 100 seats in the Saeima after the elections of October 5, 2002 and joined all the coalition governments since that time until its dissolution. In the 2006 elections, it ran together with Latvian Way; the bloc took 8.58% but also won 10 seats in parliament. The parties merged in the following years. Political positions The party proclaimed itself to be a strong supporter of the traditional family. It sponsored a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, unambiguously excluding homosexual unions. Several prominent members of the party had been labelled as homophobic by its critics. E.g. Jānis Šmits who was appointed to the position of chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee has called his parliamentary colleagues to get familiar with religious writings "in case they can actually, read", quoting a passage from the Book of Moses that could be loosely translated as: "men having gay sex must die, and their corpses must be left soaking in their own blood". Additionally, Latvijas Pirmā Partija members had several times made public statements saying that they don't feel that there is a necessity for a gay pride march in Riga, which allegedly contradicts the Freedom of Speech and Peaceful Assembly enshrined in the Constitution of Latvia. The pressure group Mozaīka (Mosaic) have mostly organized Gay Rights Rallies that some religious organizations see as overt frontal attacks on the Latvian way of life. Mozaīka have stated that they have done this to raise awareness for the rights of gays in Latvia via international media. Between annual rallies Mozaīka has done little to slowly generate improved understanding of gays in Latvia and has preferred to follow its strategy of shock tactics. (articles 100 and 103). Some have