RIGA’S central market, a bustling mosaic of stalls in the shadow of a Stalin-era skyscraper, is a testament to Latvia’s economic success. But, shopping there before the country’s election on October 6th, Aleksandr did not share in the cheer. As one of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians who were not granted citizenship when Latvia seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991, he cannot vote: “I’m stateless, and my 30-year-old son is stateless too.”

Ethnic Russians make up about a quarter of Latvia’s population. Most are citizens, and as usual the Harmony party, which gets most of their support, came first in the election. On issues like statelessness and protecting bilingual education, ethnic Russians feel that only a party of their own can represent them. Most get their news from Russian-language TV stations, many with links to the Kremlin. Other Latvian parties always rule out letting Harmony into government.

During the campaign, Harmony’s leader, Nils Usakovs, the mayor of Riga, tried to bridge the gap. Last year Harmony ended its co-operation with United Russia, Vladimir Putin’s party, and joined the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament. On sanctions against Russia, “we support a united European stand,” Mr Usakovs says. He cultivated two hawkish American senators, Lindsey Graham and the late John McCain, and hired a campaign consultant linked to them.

It did not work. Harmony’s vote share dropped from 23% in 2014 to 20% this year. The unlikelihood that the party would be allowed into government depressed ethnic Russian turnout, says Janis Ikstens of the University of Latvia: “They said, what’s the point?” Ethnic Latvians remain suspicious of Harmony, pointing to corruption scandals under Mr Usakovs in Riga.

Forming a government will be hard, and may take months. Six other parties split the rest of the vote. The second-largest, Who Owns the Government? (KPV LV), is a populist outfit run by a former actor who calls for throwing out the traditional political elite. The third-largest, the New Conservatives, wants to cut taxes while raising pensions and child benefits. Both parties hope somehow to increase Latvia’s population, which has shrunk from 2.38m in 2000 to 1.93m today due to emigration and low birth rates. That is the deeper reason why ethnic Latvians are still wary of their ethnic Russian compatriots: fear that their tiny nation will be overwhelmed.