Latvia’s President Egils Levits has decided to run for re-election, as the politician confirmed after his meeting with PM Krišjānis Kariņš on Wednesday, the 19th of April.
On the 17th of April the National Alliance political party decided to pick Egils Levits as their presidential candidate. An absolute majority of the party’s members voted in favour of Levits becoming their presidential candidate, as the leader of NA Raivis Dzintars confirmed after the party’s meeting. This will be the third time NA has picked him for his high post. In 2015 Levits reached the final stage of elections, but lost in the end to Union of Greens and Farmers candidate Raimonds Vējonis.
So far he and businessman and founder of Combined List political party Uldis Pīlēns are the only two presidential candidates to have officially announce their plans to run in elections.
Neither has a confident majority of support in the Saeima.
Presidential elections will take place in the Saeima on the last day of May.
Levits graduated from University of Hamburg with a degree in law, social sciences and philosophy.
Levits previously served as Latvia’s ambassador to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. He was also in the 5th Saeima and the country’s Minister of Justice.
Levits was later elected judge of the European Court of Human Rights from Latvia. After that he became a judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Levits is the co-author of the Declaration of Restoration of Independence of the 4th of May 1990. He also worked on the creation of the preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia.
He was elected Latvia’s president in 2019.
Also read: National Alliance picks Egils Levits for repeated state president’s term