RIGA, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - Residents of Latvia's second largest city of Daugavpils brought on Thursday over 100 kg of old footwear to the Baltic country's parliament in protest against the government's economic policies.

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.