Einars Repše

Einars Repše

Einars Repše (born December 9, 1961 in Jelgava , Latvian SSR ) is a Latvian politician and former prime minister of his country.

Life

Einars Repše graduated from the Latvian State University (now: University of Latvia ) in 1986 with a degree in physics .

From 1991 to 2001 Repše was President of the Latvian Central Bank Latvijas Banka . During this time he was responsible for the introduction of the new Latvian currency, the lats . Under Repše, Latvijas Banka pursued a restrictive monetary policy and tied the local currency via a currency board to the currency basket of special drawing rights used by the International Monetary Fund . As a result, the lats exchange rate has remained stable to this day. This success made Repše very popular in Latvia.

politics

In 1988 Repše first went into politics as the founder of the Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK) , a political organization that promoted Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union . In 1990 he was elected to the Saeima , the Latvian parliament. In 2001 Repše resigned from his post as President of the Central Bank and went back into politics. He founded the New Era party , a conservative anti- corruption party.

Prime Minister

After the Latvian parliamentary elections in 2002 , Repše became Prime Minister in November 2002. He led a coalition of his own party as well as the First Party of Latvia (LPP) , the Alliance of Greens and Peasants (ZZS) and the Party For Fatherland and Freedom .

Repše's government became known for its strong fight against corruption and tax evasion. Various high-ranking government officials, including the director of the tax authorities, have been fired or resigned. The anti-corruption measures have had some success. Income from the fuel tax , which had previously been notoriously evaded, rose by 30% within a year. The income from other types of tax, however, could not be increased significantly. The Repše government also imposed a strict limit on expenditure and was able to reduce the budget deficit in 2003 to 1.8% of gross domestic product after 3% in 2002.

From September 2003 , a conflict broke out between Repše and the First Party of Latvia , one of his coalition partners. Repše blamed interest-driven resistance to his anti-corruption efforts. Ainārs Šlesers named Repše's authoritarian leadership style as the main reason for the argument. After the First Party of Latvia left the government in January 2004, Repše had to lead a minority government and resign with his cabinet in February.

MP

Einars Repše 2006 as a member of the 9th Saeima

During the reign of Indulis Emsis , the New Era went into opposition, but in December 2004 it joined a new coalition under Aigars Kalvītis . Repše became Minister of Defense in the Kalvītis I cabinet . After a year he resigned because of a financial affair and a criminal investigation initiated against him by the State Bureau for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption ( Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs ). After the poor election results in 2006, Repše slowly lost influence in his party. During the difficult time of a financial crisis, because of his often unpopular but resounding measures, he was made Finance Minister of Dombrovski's government on March 12, 2009 . On November 3, 2010, he gave up this office.

Later work

In March 2012 he was the founder of the “Latvijas attīstībai” society to promote the development of the country. The company became the Latvijas attīstībai (For Latvian Development) party on December 15, 2013 .

Private life

Repše is married to Rūte Raginska-Repše for the third time. He is known in public life for a certain eccentricity. His hobbies include aviation , aircraft construction and painting .

Trivia

• Because of his appearance, the Latvians have given him the unfriendly nickname marsietis ( Latvian for Martian ).
• Despite the surname, which is very rare in Latvia, Einars Repše is not related to the Latvian writer Gundega Repše ( Invisible Shadows , Cologne: DuMont, 1998).

literature

• Einars Repše , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 27/2009 from June 30, 2009, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Einars Repše  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Repše, Jaunups, Titavs un līdzšinējie 'Vienotības' atbalstītāji nodibina jaunu biedrību. In: DELFI. March 1, 2012, accessed January 1, 2014 (Latvian). 
2. ↑ Repši ievēl par partijas Latvijas attīstībai valdes priekšsēdētāju. In: Diena . December 15, 2013, accessed January 1, 2014 (Latvian). 

predecessor	Office	successor
Andris Bērziņš	Prime Minister of Latvia November 7, 2002 - March 9, 2004	Indulis Emsis