28 ŽDANOKA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT party’s organisational structure. The Government therefore disagreed with the Chamber’s finding that the review of the applicant’s case by the domestic courts had been excessively formal or insufficient. 93. Moreover, the applicant’s current conduct continued to justify her disqualification. Relying on numerous press articles, they submitted that the applicant’s political activities were part of a “carefully scripted scenario” aimed at harming Latvia’s interests, distancing it from the European Union and NATO and bringing it closer to the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Government referred to certain critical statements recently made by the applicant about the State’s current policy towards the Russianspeaking minority and the new Language Act; they also criticised the applicant’s role in the organisation of public meetings on the dates of former Soviet festivals. 94. They stressed that since the reinstatement of the 1922 Constitution, each successive parliament had examined the need to maintain the disqualification of individuals who had been active members of the CPSU or the CPL after 13 January 1991. This periodic re-examination constituted an established parliamentary practice and showed that the restriction in question was provisional in nature. The Chamber had failed to give sufficient weight to that fact. 95. Finally, the Government emphasised the fact that the CPSU, through its subordinate sections within the Soviet Union and elsewhere in central and eastern Europe, had to be seen as the only party having control of all branches of power, as well as of the “lives and minds” of the people, for a period of many decades following the Second World War. The former communist States of central and eastern Europe were thus to be distinguished from other countries where a political party might be considered as posing a threat to national security and other vital interests within the context of the established framework of democratic institutions. The new democracies of central and eastern Europe were more sensitive than other European countries to the threat to the democratic regime presented by the resurgence of ideas akin to those espoused by the CPSU and CPL. In view of these special circumstances, the Government considered that the Latvian authorities were best placed to evaluate the steps needed to protect the democratic regime, including by means of measures such as those in issue in the present case. C. The Court’s assessment 1. The facts in dispute 96. The Court observes, in the first place, that a number of historical events are disputed between the parties. Thus, the applicant contests the Government’s version of events with regard to the origin and nature of the