On Wednesday, 29 May, Egils Levits was elected as the President of Latvia. In the first round of elections, using an open ballot, 61 MPs voted for and 32 MPs voted against Mr Levits.
Pursuant to the Constitution, the President of Latvia shall be elected with a majority of at least 51 votes.
Egils Levits has served as a judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union, and a board member of Societas Iuris Publici Europaei, an association of European Public Law Scholars.
Previously, Mr Levits was an MP in the 5th convocation of the Saeima, Minister of Justice, Deputy PM in the government of Valdis Birkavs, as well as Latvia’s Ambassador to Germany, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. The newly elected President has also held the position of judge at the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Levits also chaired the President’s Constitutional Law Committee and drafted the framework of the declaration of the restoration of Latvia’s independence and the Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia.
Mr Levits graduated from the Faculty of Law of at the Hamburg University, as well as the Department of Policy Science in the Faculty of Philosophy and Public Sciences at the same university.
There were three nominees for the office of the President of Latvia: Egils Levits, Juris Jansons and Didzis Šmits.
Saeima Press Service