Sarmīte Ēlerte

Sarmīte Ēlerte. Stockholm 2011.

Sarmīte Ēlerte (born April 8, 1957 in Riga ) is a Latvian journalist and politician. From 1992 to 2008 she was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Diena , in 2010 and 2011 she was Minister of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.

Life

Sarmīte Ēlerte attended secondary school No. 45 in Riga. After graduating from high school, she studied journalism at the Latvian University , graduating in 1980. In a distance learning from 1983 to 1988 at the State All-Union Institute for Cinematography in Moscow, she acquired a degree as a film critic . From 1978 to 1988 she worked for the magazine Literatūra un Māksla , where she was responsible for cinema, television and photography from 1983, among other tasks. In 1988 she got involved in setting up an information center for the Latvian Popular Front ( Latvijas Tautas fronte ). After the Popular Front won the 1990 elections, she became the senior director of the Information Center of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia, a position she held until 1991. In 1990 she became deputy editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Diena , two years later its editor-in-chief (until 2008). In 2007 she was a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations , (ECFR), a think tank mainly supported by George Soros . Before that, she was a member of the supervisory board of the Latvian section of the Soros Foundation from 1993 to 1996 and its president from 1997 to 2006. Since 2009 is Senior Chair of the National Council for Culture.

In 2007, Sarmīte Ēlerte was together with Sandra Kalniete the driving force behind the so-called umbrella revolution ( Lietussargu revolūcija ), which was directed against the "oligarchs", the ruling power circles around Ainārs Šlesers , Aivars Lembergs and Andris Šķēle . In 2009 she was involved in the process of consolidating the Latvian center-right forces, which subsequently formed an electoral alliance called Vienotība for the elections to the 10th Saeima . In these elections ran Sarmīte Ēlerte successful at Vienotība -Landesliste for Semgallen and entered the Saeima. On November 3, 2010, Valdis Dombrovski's second cabinet became Senior Minister for Culture . In the election for the 11th Saeima , she was not elected to parliament. Since June 1, 2013, she has been a member of the Riga City Council instead.

Private matters and awards

Sarmīte Ēlerte is the daughter of Elfrīda and Ansis Ēlerts, who was editor of the newspaper Tautas balss ( voice of the people ) during the Second World War , which agitated underground against both the Soviet and the German occupiers. Her brother Ivars was a member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia from 1990 to 1993. Sarmīte Ēlerte has a son. She is a member of the Latvian Association of Cinematographers.

Ēlerte was awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1998 and the Latvian Three-Star Order, Third Class, in 1999 .

swell

• Biographical entry at Vienotība (Latvian, viewed August 15, 2011)
• Laura Liepiņa: Sarmīte Ēlerte (Latvian, viewed August 15, 2011)
• Profile in the portal "Kino Latvijā" (Latvian, viewed August 15, 2011)