Andris Bērziņš (politician, 1944)

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Andris Bērziņš (2010)

Andris Bērziņš (born December 10, 1944 in Nītaure ) is a Latvian businessman and politician. From 2011 to 2015 he was President of Latvia .

Education and career

After his school education, Bērziņš graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Riga in 1971 as a telecommunications engineer. He then began his professional career at the company Elektrons , which he left in 1988 as director. In the same year he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Latvia and became Deputy Minister of Municipal Services in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR).

From 1993 to January 2004 he was head of SEB Unibanka , one of the largest banks in Latvia. At the same time he advised several other companies and sat on the supervisory boards of various companies. Between December 2006 and April 2009, Bērziņš was a board member of the state energy company Latvenergo . He is considered one of the wealthiest men in his country.

Political career

In 1990 Bērziņš was elected to the Supreme Council of the LSSR, in which he represented the city of Valmiera . Shortly thereafter, he joined the Latvian Popular Front , a political organization that led Latvia to independence from the Soviet Union (1991). In 2005 the non-party Andris Bērziņš applied for the office of mayor in Riga without success. From 2006 to 2010 he headed the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In October 2010, Bērziņš won a seat in the Latvian parliament for the Alliance of Greens and Peasants . There he acted as head of the economic committee. On June 2, 2011, the MPs elected him as the new President of Latvia.

The election for president was preceded by a power struggle between parliament and Bērziņš 'predecessor Valdis Zatlers . Since Zatlers was of the opinion that the Chamber of Deputies was not vigorously combating the corruption , mainly carried out by some oligarchs in the country , he applied for the dissolution of parliament on May 28, 2011, which the population approved on July 23, 2011 with a large majority. In the regular election of the new president in parliament on June 2, 2011, Bērziņš, who had previously been considered an outsider, received 53 out of 100 votes in the second ballot; Zatlers received 41 votes. Zatlers was supported by the ruling conservative Vienotība party and the national conservative opposition party VL-TB / LNNK , while the alliance of the Greens and Peasants , the Par Labu Latviju! Alliance , which represents the interests of the Latvian oligarchs . and the pro-Russian Saskaņas Centrs voted for Bērziņš with a majority. In connection with the two ballots, the suspicion of buying votes was raised. On July 8, 2011, Bērziņš took his oath of office.

On July 8, 2015, Bērziņš was replaced by Raimonds Vējonis in the office of Latvian President.

Web links

Commons : Andris Bērziņš  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andris Berzins - newly elected president of Latvia The Baltic Course, June 3, 2011
  2. ↑ Latkovskis on TV3 or: - ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.apollo.lv
  3. ↑ Andris Berzins wins presidential election in Latvia Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2nd 2011
  4. ↑ Vejonis took over the presidency in Latvia. In: ORF.at . July 8, 2015, accessed July 8, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Bērziņš, Andris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latvian businessman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Nītaure